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James Louis Petigru. 



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J. L. PETIGmJ 



c-xirdine to act ifdngress JJI.USfy OuifT.Saiisin Hie alerks oKai nflfu DislruJ ceuHoftht ITS. fir Sic Southern JHsJf^t cfMn/Hrlc . 



JAMES LOUIS PETIGRU. 



^ iSiograpljical Sbtcl). 



BY 



WILLIAM J. GRAYSOlSr, 



" Faithful found : 
Among the faithless, faithful only he. 
Paradise Lost, Book V. 



NEW YORK: 

HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, 

FRANKLIN SQUARE. 

18 6 6. 




r?. 






Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand 
eight hundred and sixty-six, by 

Harper & Brothers, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District 

of New York. 



The MS. from wbich the following Biographic- 
al Sketch is printed was found among the papers 
of the late William J. Grayson, of Charleston, S. C. 
The scraps of old paper upon which it is written 
indicate that it was undertaken during the priva- 
tions and anxieties of the siege of Charleston, when, 
the materials for writing had become scarce. The 
guarded tone of its political revelations no less im- 
pressively suggests that the censorship and partisan 
bitterness of civil war repressed the free utterances 
of the writer, who doubtless intended the memoir 
for the latitude and the circumstances of the place 
and time ; and what renders this tribute of affec- 
tion the more interesting is the fact that, within a 
few hours after its completion, the author died, from 
the effects of a tedious illness, aggravated by patri- 
otic regrets and personal bereavements. What was 



thus written can scarcely be abridged or modified 
without disrespect to the dead. The intelligent 
reader will make due allowance for the restrained 
expressions and the unrevised style, and accept the 
whole as a spontaneous labor of love, achieved in 
the face of many discouragements. 

The author was the last survivor of a group of 
respected and beloved men of talent and social at- 
tractiveness. Petigru, King, and Grayson were 
honored names in Charleston society before the 
war. Mr. Grayson was born in Beaufort District, 
S. C, in November, 1788, and died at Newberry 
on the 4th of October, 1863. His father was an of- 
ficer in the Continental Army of the Eevolution. 
The son early manifested taste and talent for liter- 
ature and official life : he was graduated at Colum- 
bia College, S. C, in 1809 ; he became a member of 
the Legislature of his native state in 1813 ; was a 
commissioner itl equity for a long period ; and was 
elected to Congress in 1833 ; subsequently appoint- 
ed Collector of the port of Charleston by President 
Tyler, continued in that office by Polk and Fill- 
more, and removed by Pierce. Mr. Grayson was a 
very temperate advocate of state rights, and a very 



Vll 

amiable defender of Southern institutions. He 
sang the praises of" rural life and agricultural pur- 
suits in an elaborate heroic poem, entitled "The 
Country," and in graceful verse delineated the ad- 
vantages which the Southern bondman possessed 
over the European laborer. This metrical essay, 
called the " Hireling and Slave," was very popular 
at the South : " it ought to be on every man's man- 
tle," said a leading Southern journal. His other 
principal work was a collection of verses, published 
under the name of " Chicora, and other Poems." 
There is a pleasing vein of description in Grayson's 
poems : the fishing and hunting on the coast, the 
scenery and life of the region where he was born 
and bred, are well depicted. One of the character- 
istic episodes of his longer poems is a picture of 
the island home and life of General Pinckney, and 
many of his occasional verses indicate true feeling 
and expressive grace. Some lines addressed to his 
wife are a beautiful specimen of the domestic lyric. 
Mr. Grayson was regarded as a gifted champion of 
the South; he was a constant student, a faithful 
public man, and a genial companion. During the 
last years of his life he was engaged on an autobi- 



Vlll 

ographic and reminiscent work, and throughout his 
career was a welcome contributor to the leading 
journals of the South. In 1850, during the fierce 
controversy in regard to secession, he published a 
pamphlet deprecating the movement and advoca- 
ting the Union : it was written in the form of a let- 
ter addressed to Governor Seabrook. Mr. Grayson 
was in his seventy-fifth year when he died. His 
last task was to record what he knew of his life- 
long friend Petigrn. Inadequate as the story may 
be considered as a biograpl^y, it gives many inter- 
esting facts of the early life of the patriotic lawyer, 
traces his professional career with accuracy, and 
aftbrds a very distinct and just idea of the character 
of a man who stood alone among his fellow-citizens 
the open and consistent opponent of treason. 

Such a memorial is not onl}'- attractive as the 
portrait of a gifted and loj^al citizen, but valuable 
as a contribution toward the political and social 
history of the Rebellion. We are confident that it 
will be read with interest by the numerous friends 
of the lamented subject in all parts of the country, 
notwithstanding the differences of opinion inevita- 
bly associated with the subjects discussed in the 



IX 

memoir. It is not alone in his native state that 
Mr. Petigru's name is cherished and his memory 
honored. When the news of his death reached 
New York and Boston the event called forth ap- 
propriate tributes of respect from the Historical 
Societies of both states, a brief account of which 
we subjoin."^" 

New York Historical Society, May 5, 1863. 
A very large audience was assembled at the reg- 
ular monthly meeting of the New York Historical 
Society to hear the addresses which it had been 
announced would be made upon the life and char- 
acter of James Louis Petigru, President of the His- 
torical Society of South Carolina, who recently died 
in Charleston. Frederick Depeyster, Esq., presided. 
The preliminary business of the meeting having 
been transacted, the resolutions in reference to the 
death of Mr. Petigru, presented at the last meeting 
of the society, were read by the librarian, and then 
Hon. George Bancroft delivered a brief address, in 
which he graphically sketched the prominent inci- 
dents of the deceased statesman's life, and the char- 

* Historical Magazine, vol. viii., p. 159, 185. 

A2 



X 

acteristics of his mind, and paid a glowing tribute 
to his memory. Mr. Petigru, he said, was born in 
Abbeville, S. C, in May, 1789, not long after Wash- 
ington, in New York, took the oath, as President of 
the United States, to support their Constitution; 
and two days after Madison, in the name of the 
House of Eepresentatives, pledged "the American 
people to cherish a conscientious responsibility for 
the destiny of republican liberty." Educated at 
Columbia College, S. C, he took his degree in 1809, 
was admitted to the bar in 1812 ; in 1822 he suc- 
ceeded Eobert Y. Hayne as attorney general for the 
state, and for many years was acknowledged to 
stand at the head of his profession. In the admin- 
istration of Mr. Fillmore, when secession seemed re- 
solved upon, and the incumbent of the United 
States district attorneyship threw up his office as 
unfit to be held by a South Carolinian, Petigru con- 
sented for a time to perform its functions as the rep- 
resentative of the Union. He died at Charleston, 
March 9, 1863. 

Mr. Bancroft related interesting incidents of his 
personal intercourse with Mr. Petigru, spoke of his 
rare mental powers, his generosity, industry, disin- 



XI 

terestedness, his faithfulness to the laws and Con- 
stitution of the United States as the highest insti- 
tuted authorities, and his unwavering support of 
the union of the states. Mr. Bancroft, in conclu- 
sion, said the whole might be summed up in these 
words : 

" Nothing is here for tears, nothing to wail, 
Or knock the breasts ; no weakness, no contempt, 
Dispraise, or blame ; nothing but well and fair, 
And what may quiet us in a death so noble." 

Dr. Francis Lieber also spoke briefly, giving in- 
teresting illustrations from personal intercourse 
with Mr. Petigru, while connected with the South 
Carolina College, of his beautiful character, brilliant 
mind, keen wit, sound judgment, and disinterested 
generosity of disposition. 

Eemarks were also made by Daniel Lord, Esq., 
and Hiram Ketchum, after which the resolutions 
were unanimously adopted, and the meeting ad- 
journed. 

Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston^ 
April, 1863. The annual meeting of the Massa- 
chusetts Historical Society was held at their rooms, 



X 1 1 

IIoii. Eobert C. Wintlirop, the president, in the 
chair. 

The president, after remarks on the publication 
of a volunio of the society's collections, and also of 
a volume of the proceedings, Avhich were laid on 
the table, referred to the deaths of Judge Petigru, 
of South Carolina, an honorary- member of the so- 
ciety, and Professor Francis, of Cambridge, a resi- 
dent member, substantially as follows : Mr. Petigru 
was the president of the Historical Societj* of South 
Carolina, before which he delivered an eloquent in- 
auo-ural discourse a few vears since. He was elect- 
ed an honorary member of our own society in Feb- 
ruarv, 1S61, and his formal acceptance was an- 
nounced by our Corresponding Secretary at the 
following March meeting. 

The pleasant personal relations with Mr. Petigru 
which I had enjoyed many years previously, and 
the interest which I took in his course at that crit- 
ical period of our public aftaii-s, induced me to write 
to him immediately after his election, and I have 
brought his reply here to-day, in the assurance that 
the society would be pleased to hear the following 
brief extracts from it : 



X 1 1 1 

" Charleston, Feb. 2.'5, 1 8G1 . 

" My dear Sir, — Nothing could exceed the kind- 
ness of your note giving me notice of the honor 
done rnc by the Massachusetts Historical Society. 
To be chosen for a colleague and an associate by 
such a society is a distinction of which any body 
might be proud, but it is rendered much more flat- 
tering by the way it is announced. 

" I remember with the greatest distinctness the 
hours which I passed so many years ago in the 
house of your venerable father, as well as under 
your own hospitable roof. '^' '^" '^' IIow willingly 
I would make any sacrifice that might avert from 
our common country the consequences of that mis- 
erable discord that now prevails between commu- 
nities that ought forever to be united. I say raiser- 
ahle^ for such we may certainly deem a controversy 
odious to the best men on either side. History will 
adjust hereafter the degree of reprobation due to 
each party, but I venture to say that whatever may 
be thought of the motives of the actors, their folly 
will be as much the subject of wonder as of cen- 
sure. We are here in such a disturbed condition, 
that the things that are going to happen in a week 



XIV 

are as uncertain as if they belonged to a distant fu- 
ture. 

" With great anxiety for a peaceful solution of 
difficulties, but with very little hope, 
" I am, my dear sir, 

" Very truly and sincerely yours, 

J. L. Petigru. 

"The Hon. R C. Winthrop." 

This letter was written more than two months 
after South Carolina had adopted her ordinance of 
secession, and only six or seven weeks before the 
bombardment of Fort Sumter. But Mr. Petigru 
was not of a complexion to be moved from his firm 
devotion to the cause of the Union either by any 
thing which had been done, or by any thing which 
it was proposed to do. He had stood fast for the 
Union in the days of Nullification, thirty years be- 
fore, and had resisted alike every temptation and 
every menace which could be employed to induce 
him to swerve from his loyalty to the Constitution 
of the United States. He might have said to the 
abettors of this later conspiracy, " Contempsi Cati- 
linse gladios, non pertimescam tuos." He stood fast 
for the Union again in these days of secession and 



XV 



rebellion in defiance of all intimidations or bland- 
ishments ; and if the wisdom, and virtue, and elo- 
quence, and patriotism of any one man — for he 
seemed to stand almost alone in the community in 
which he lived — could have availed any thing to 
arrest the madness of those around him, and to 
avert the dreadful catastrophe of civil war, the ex- 
ample, the influence, and the appeals of Mr. Petigru 
would not have been lost. 

It is not my purpose to go farther into his per- 
sonal history or public life on this occasion. A 
great lawyer, an admirable orator, an accomplished, 
virtuous, and brave man, rich in all the qualities 
and resources which rendered him the most de- 
lightful of companions and the most valued of 
friends, he has left a name and a fame which would 
adorn the annals of any land or any age. But I 
have desired to recall him here to-day only as one 
who had twice signalized his devotion to the Amer- 
ican Union under circumstances and in a manner 
which must secure him the grateful remembrance 
of all to whom that Union is dear. He died be- 
fore the worst results of this deplorable rebellion 
had fallen upon the city of his residence in the 



XVI 



struggle which is probably at this moment in prog- 
ress, and his friends may well feel that he was 
kindly and mercifully " taken away from the evil 
to come." 



The following tributary stanzas appeared in the 
"Independent," October 19th, 1865: 

PETf laRU. 

[These lines were written, not to revive the feeling of bitterness 
which accompanied the civil war, now so happily terminated, but 
to recall the memory of a great and good man, not less respected 
now by the South than by the North, over whose remains it has 
been suggested a monument should be erected in commemoration 
of his private worth as well as his public virtues. It is hoped that 
this suggestion, so generally mooted since Judge Petigru's death, 
will be practically carried out.] 

" No, I will not : take my answer ; 
Call me traitor, think me fool ; 
But, by all that makes my manhood. 
Thou shalt not make me thy tool. 

*' Play the farce out, wreak thy vengeance, 
Let me in the prison rot ; 
But inscribe upon my tomb-stone, 

'This man scorned us and our plot.' " 

Yet they cast him not in prison : 

Policy prescribed it best 
To make strong by that exception 

The concurrence of the rest. 



X Vll 

So, throughout the dark rebellion, 

Stricken by his country's loss, 
Through the grass-grown streets of Charleston, 

Patiently he bore his cross. 

One, alone of all the people. 

Branded with the public blame ; 
One, alone of all the jjeople. 

Free from secret cause for shame. 

Yet unslandered by his fellows ; 

For no heart, howe'er misled. 
But bowed down its inner nature 

To that clearer heart and head 

Thus he lived ; a man whose country 

Was not bounded by a state. 
And whose uncorrupted honor 

Turned the shafts of private hate. 

Thus he died : unnerved, unshaken 

By opinion's subtle art ; 
Now the stricken city weepeth, 

And the nation holds his heart. 

'Tis for this we render honor — 

That he ranked among the few 
Who, amid a reign of Error, 

Dared sublimely to be true. 

C. K. T. 



JAMES LOUIS PETIGRU.* 



About tlie middle of the last century, a 
young couple — James and Mary Petigru — 
emigrated from Ireland to America. They 
had been married not only without the con- 
sent, but against the active opposition of re- 
lations and friends. Of these friends one 
side were Protestants, the other side mem- 
bers of the Catholic Church, and religious 
dissension exasperated the family quarrel. 
The persecuted pair abandoned their home, 
and sought peace and more j^rosperous for- 
tunes in the woods of Pennsylvania. From 
Pennsylvania they moved to South Carolina, 
and settled themselves at last in Abbeville 
District, at that time the district of " Ninety- 



six." 



* Formerly spelt Pettigrew. 



20 Meimoie of 

In due season tlie wanderers gave to the 
state a large number of sons. Charles, the 
eldest, was sent abroad for education, took 
orders in the Church of England, and, after 
his return to America, became titular bishop 
of the North Carolina diocese. His descend- 
ants are still living there. Of these. General 
Johnston Petigru, of the Confederate army, 
is one. The other sons of James and JMary 
bore arms in the country's service during 
the Eevolutionary war, some as officers,, oth- 
ers in the ranks. The youngest son,William 
Petigru, then only sixteen, served as a dra- 
o'oon under Colonel Washino;ton in various 
actions. He was wounded, and received a 
pension during the latter part of his life. 
His fiither died before the war, his mother 
shortly after its close. He was the only son 
remaining with lier at her death, and inher- 
ited a few negroes and the farm on which 
she had lived. The tarm is on Little River, 
in the '' Flat Woods" of Abbeville District, 
and is uoav the property of Mv. Haskell. 

The character of AVilliam Petigru was 
not a common one. He had 2:reat wit and 



James L. Petigku. 21 

liiimor; was generous and impulsive, gay 
and social ; caring little for business, but al- 
ways ready for sport ; without education, yet 
greatly devoted to books; a lover of read- 
ing, where few ever read ; exhibiting taste 
and judgment that seemed instinctive, and, 
without any but his own training, selecting 
the standard authors of the language for his 
use and amusement, and introducing his chil- 
dren, in the midst of the woods, to the pol- 
ishe^i poetry of Pope. He read to them, and 
read Avell, enjoying without measure every 
passage of wit or humor that appeared in the 
author, and teaching his children to enjoy 
them too. He made them read to each oth- 
er, and established a rule in the house that 
one should always read aloud while the rest 
were at work. 

He had a friend. With his genial nature 
it could hardly be otherwise. His friend, 
Tom Finley, lived with him after his moth- 
er's death. The two intimates were not alike 
in character. They agreed thoroughly in the 
love only of books. Finley was cold and 
reserved ; fond of disputation, and excelling 



22 Memoir of 



in it; with no wit or humor, but admiring it 
in others ; not loving money, but not regard- 
less of it ; skillful enough in the management 
of affairs, but not too eager in their pursuit. 
They lived together, not only while bache- 
lors, but after William Petigru's marriage, 
and this led to a cementing of their friend- 
ship at last by their marrying sisters. The 
result of the two weddings was not the same. 
The careless, improvident, but genial temper 
of one bridegroom made him the head, of a 
hapj)y household, notwithstanding its troub- 
les ; the sombre, disputatious nature of the 
other was less fortunate. One sister lived 
long enough to see a house full of joyous 
children; the other died in a year or two, 
leaving an infant son to the elder's care. 

The two sisters — wives of Finley and Pet- 
igru — were daughters of Jean Louis Gibert, 
one of those Huguenot pastors w^ho sought 
safety for their flocks in the wilds of Amer- 
ica during the persecutions of the eighteenth 
century. In connection with other names 
familiar to South Carolina — the names, for 
example, of Samuel and Elie Prioleau — the 



James L. Petigru. 23 

pastor Gribert is spoken of by tlie Rev. A. 
Crottet, in liis History of the Reformed 
Churclies in France, as a bold, faithful, and 
indefatigable minister. Another of his name, 
Etienne Gibert, perhaps a brother, was pas- 
tor of the French Church in England, called 
" La Patente," in Spital Fields, near London. 
Jean Louis led the last of the Huguenot col- 
onies to Carolina. He established his flock 
in Abbeville, at New Bordeaux. They were 
strangers in a new land, and endured many 
hardships. But the Huguenots were indus- 
trious and frugal ; they seldom failed to suc- 
ceed. 

The leader and his flock received a grant 
of land from the royal government, and the 
people were making advances in the produc- 
tion of wine and silk. The pastor had ex- 
hibited approved specimens to the state au- 
thorities. Every thing seemed to promise 
the colony success, when the death of their 
chief and the revolution that followed de- 
stroyed their Tiopes. If the death of the pas- 
tor was a terrible event to his j)eo]3le, it was 
even more disastrous to his family. 



24 Memoik of 

He liad married one of his flock on arriv- 
ing at Charleston, and left three children. 
The widow, unable to contend with her diffi- 
culties in the country, removed to Charleston. 
In a year or two she married Pierre Enge- 
vine, a merchant of the city. No children fol- 
lowed the marriage. The wife died in a few 
years, and Mr. Engevine retired from busi- 
ness, and removed to Abbeville with the three 
children of the Eev. Mr. Gibert. The pur- 
pose of Engevine was to improve the prop- 
erty of the orphans. But this was not easy. 
Silk and wine had been abandoned, and cot- 
ton was yet unknown. There was no mar- 
ket crop, and farming was unprofitable. It 
was difficult to find funds to defray the house 
expenses, or to provide means of education 
for the children — the son Joseph and the 
two daughters — beyond the resources of the 
household — the library of the deceased pas- 
tor and the stepfather's imperfect aid. 

In this emergency, Mr. Engevine thought 
it expedient to apprentice the boy Joseph to 
a trade. But the lad was proud, sensitive, 
and aspiring. His spirit revolted at what he 



James L. Petigru. 25 

thought a descent from his father's station in 
life. By desj)erate exertions in the intervals 
of his ordinary labors, he fitted himself for 
the practice of medicine; but the exertion 
overtasked his strength, and injured his con- 
stitution. He became moody, and died un- 
married, a victim to wounded pride and a 
sensitive spirit. 

The two girls, Louise Guy and Jeanne, 
grew up in seclusion, with such assistance in 
their instruction as Mr. Engevine's affection 
and care could bestow. Louise, the elder, at- 
tended to the household affairs. Her nature 
was well fitted for the task. She had a calm 
constancy, a modesty combined vdth dignity, 
a sweetness of temper and firmness of pur- 
pose which commanded both affection and re- 
spect. She was as charming in person as in 
character — a brunette, with a smooth, deli- 
cate skin, soft hazel eyes, dark brown hair, a 
figure of medium height, well rounded, with 
exquisitely formed arms, hands, and feet. She 
was beloved by her people. Some time aft- 
er her death one of her daughters asked an 
old man, the patriarch of the surviving French 

B 



26 Memoie of 

colonists, whetlier lie remembered tlie inquir- 
er's mother. " What," lie replied, with in- 
creased interest, " do you mean tlie pastor's 
daughter ? Oh yes, I remember her well ; she 
was very beautiful, and as good as she was 
beautiful." 

With this charming girl the lively and 
impulsive William Petigru accidentally met. 
He fell in love forthwith, sought her acquaint- 
ance, and recommended himself to her more 
sedate character by the allurements of his 
cheerfulness and wit. He was successful in 
winning her heart, and they were married in 
the summer of 1788. 

On the 10th of May, 1789, at the farm on 
Little River, their first son, James Louis Peti- 
gru, was born, the first of eleven children. 
He was named from the two grandfathers, 
the emigrant from Ireland and the French 
pastor, and was a vigorous and promising boy 
from his birth, the joy of the young parents, 
of his aunt Jeanne, the father's friend Finley, 
and the grandpapa Engevine. The expecta- 
tions of sanguine relatives were not unfound- 
ed. Time confirmed the morning's early 



James L. Petigeu. 27 

promises. In force of cliaracter, depth, orig- 
inality, and vigor of mind, the grandson of 
James Petigru and the French pastor had 
few equals. He lived to become the stay of 
his house, and to win high honor in his state 
and beyond it. I propose to attempt a sketch 
of his life, to offer a tribute, however imper- 
fect, to his distinguished virtues and abili- 
ties. 

The infant nephew of Jeanne Gibert drew 
the young aunt into many visits at the Petti- 
grew farm. Finley was still an inmate. He 
was attracted by the appearance of the visit- 
or, and they were married, after a short court- 
ship and partial acquaintance. The farm of 
Finley was at no great distance, and the two 
households were near and intimate neighbors. 
But the happy intercourse was of short dura- 
tion. Mrs. Finley died the third year after 
her marriage, leaving a son to her sister's 
care. The son was distinguished when a 
youth at college for assiduity and talent. He 
was in the class of 1813, and bid fair to ob- 
tain its highest honors. But a short illness, 
in the junior year of the class, destroyed the 



28 Memoir of 

brilliant promise of his mind, and closed his 
career. The course of the elder sister's son 
was more fortunate, and a long life matured 
and developed his strong characteristics of 
heart and mind. 

It was at the funeral of his aunt, Mrs. Fin- 
ley, that the sensibility and tenderness that 
marked the nephew's nature were first strik- 
ingly manifested. He wept at the scene so 
long and violently as to attract the notice and 
concern of all the attendants ; and when the 
coffin was about to be let down into the 
grave, he stretched out his arms to prevent 
it with passionate protestations. 

To his mother he was always devoted, and 
loved her from early life with deep affection. 
From his boyhood he was her active assist- 
ant in the discharge of her household duties. 
The cares of a large family often kept her up 
to a late hour at night. At these times he 
never went to bed until she was ready to go. 
He mended the fire for her ; he talked with 
her; he read to her; he lightened her toils 
by sympathy, and by all the active aid he 
could manage to give her. His affectionate 



James L. Petigru. 29 

nature was never weary in its manifestations 
of devotion and love, and the gentle mother 
fully aj)preciated their value. 

Not only his friends thought him possessed 
of great quickness of parts, and the old grand- 
papa Engevine continued to delight in jDre- 
dicting his future distinction, but that there 
was something uncommon about the boy was 
the general opinion, though the conviction 
was exhibited in various ways, some favor- 
able, others of evil augury. It was his habit 
to throw himself on the grass, under a tree, 
with a book, and to become absorbed in the 
author's pages. An old neighbor said to his 
mother one day, " I have just passed your son 
James under the big aj^ple-tree. He is so 
much taken up with his book that he never 
saw nor heard me, though I walked within a 
few feet of him." These admiring dames of 
the neighborhood would have rejoiced to coax 
or drive their sons to similar ajoplication with 
their books from the more attractive enjoy- 
ment of dog, horse, and gun. Others of the 
good j^eople looked with less favor on the 
student's pursuits. It was a custom with 



30 Memoir of 

the young lover of books to walk alone in 
tke woods, to mutter or talk to himself, and 
to become irritable if interrupted in these 
reveries. The practical old people who had 
occasionally met him would point to their 
foreheads, and intimate that every thing was 
not right with him in that quarter. They 
preferred the less equivocal promise of their 
own sons, and thought the hunt of a racoon 
or squirrel, a good shot, or successful quar- 
ter-race, much more indicative of sound fac- 
ulties and progress in life. 

His first teacher was a wandering Virgin- 
ian of no great parts or acquirements, from 
whom he learned nothing, and of whom he 
remembered little more than the "barrings 
out" to which the master was subjected by 
his rebellious scholars. 

In 1800 the whole household removed to 
Badwell, the farm and residence of the Gi- 
berts. It was the property of Joseph, the 
son of the pastor, and he shared it with his 
sister and her children. It has been the 
family homestead ever since. The farm lies 
amono; the hills of Abbeville, on Buffalo 



James L. Petigru. 31 

Creek, a tributary of Little Kiver, about 
twenty miles from tbe former residence of 
tlie Petigru family. 

Here, when about eleven years old, lie was 
sent to the school of Charles Touloon, an 
Irish schoolmaster. Touloon was believed 
by his scholar to be a Catholic priest, who 
had violated his vows by passing into matri- 
mony. He married the widow of Lieutenant 
Henderson, who had been killed during the 
Revolution in a skirmish with the Tories. 
That the reverend father should have been 
in snared into a breach of his vows by the 
relict of the lieutenant is the less surprising, 
as in subsequent years she was considered a 
witch by all her neighbors. Touloon knew 
something of Latin and mathematics, and his 
scholar always spoke of him with respect 
and regard. 

For two years immediately previous to the 
spring of 1804, James Louis was employed 
in looking after the farm. He devoted him- 
self to the task with assiduity and earnest- 
ness. His industry was invaluable to his 
mother, on whose judgment and care the 



32 Memoir of 

well-being of the family for the most part 
depended. He was indefatigable, and she 
never ceased to express the belief that his 
resolute spirit would work its way to distinc- 
tion and honor in the great world. 

There was at this time a grammar-school 
of great eminence in the neighborhood, the 
academy of the Rev. Dr. Waddell at Wil- 
lington. How James Louis might be got to 
it was the subject of anxious consultation 
with the household. The question was often 
discussed, and as often postponed. It in- 
volved many difficulties : how should the 
expenses of board, lodging, and tuition be 
defrayed ; how could his assistance on the 
farm be dispensed with ; how would the fam- 
ily be able to spare one who was the life of 
the house as well as its promise ? 

About the period of these deliberations, 
early in 1804, Dr. Waddell attended a meet- 
ing of some kind near Badwell, the family 
residence. Some one present attempted to 
relate to the doctor an event that he had 
read in a late Charleston pajDer. The narra- 
tor made bungling work of the story, Avhen 



James L. Petigru. 33 

James Louis, who was standing near, said to 
tlie reverend gentleman, " Sir, tlie affair was 
after this wise ;" and went on to tell the tale 
in a clear, connected manner, and in well- 
chosen language. The doctor was very well 
pleased with the performance, patted the. lad 
on the head, and remarked to him, " If I had 
you with me, my boy, I would make a man 
of you." The event decided the long con- 
sultations of the family council, and placed 
the young aspirant in the way to honorable 
distinction. It was a decision of deep con- 
cern, not only to him, but to the younger 
branches of the family, who shared the fruits 
of his successful fortunes. He was sent to 
Willington forthwith. The school was ten 
miles from Badwell, and his return home, ev- 
ery Friday evening, was a jubilee to the 
house anxiously looked for every week by 
all parties, by the younger children espe- 
cially. 

It was a great happiness to the ambitious 
boy when the way to Willington was opened 
to his enterprise. His imagination magnified 
its advantages. He was accustomed at the 

B 2 



34 Memoir of 

time to keep a journal of events and opin- 
ions. On one page of it he wrote, ^' This day 
I am to go to Willington ;" and added, 

"With joy and fear I view the vast design." 

The line has something of the rhythm of 
Pope's verse, and indicates an early acquaint- 
ance with an author more prized a hundred 
years ago than now. Perhaps there were 
other lines which the reporter has forgotten. 
The journal has been lost. It is very much 
to be regretted. There can be no doubt that 
it abounded in pithy and original remarks. 

The Willington school was a sort of Eton 
or Kugby of American manufacture, and the 
doctor at its head the Carolina Dr. Arnold. 
He had great talents for organization and 
government. His method apj)ealed largely 
to the honor and moral sense of his pupils. 
They were not confined with their books un- 
necessarily in a narrow school-room. The 
forest was their place of study. They re- 
sorted to the old oaks and hickories, and at 
their feet or among their branches prepared 
their various lessons. The horn called them 



James L. Petigru. 35 

at intervals to change of occupation. The 
sound, was repeated from point to point, and 
the woods echoed with these sonorous sig- 
nals for recitation or retirement. When cold 
or wet weather drove the students from their 
sylvan resorts, log cabins in various quar- 
ters afforded the requisite accommodations. 
At night, with the same sound of the horn, 
they retired to their lodgings for sleep or 
farther study. Their food was Spartan in 
plainness — corn-bread and bacon ; and for 
lights, torches of pine were more in fashion 
than candles. Monitors regulated the classes 
and subdivisions of classes, and preserved 
the order and discipline of the institution 
with the smallest possible reference to its 
head. It was a kind of rural republic, with 
a perpetual dictator. The scholars were en- 
thusiastically attached to their school. Aft- 
er they had become grandfathers they talked 
of it in raptures. 

Thomas Farr Capers — who is, indeed, full 
on all subjects of genial and generous im- 
pulses — used to speak of the institution with 
tears in his eyes, especially when he told of 



36 Memoie of 

a visit he made to it in company with George 
McDuffie long after the days of their studies, 
and when the school no longer existed. Mr. 
Capers had met with McDuffie at the Vir- 
ginia Springs. It was just after the death 
of McDuffie's wife, and he was worn with 
sorrow and disappointed hopes. They trav- 
eled together on their return home until they 
reached McDuffie's residence at Cherry Hill, 
in the vicinity of Willington. The next 
morning it was arranged that they should 
visit the scenes of their school-day pleasures. 
They rode to the sjDot. As they neared the 
site of the school it was proposed by McDuf- 
fie that they should dismount. They ap- 
proached the dilapidated buildings on foot, 
with uncovered heads. They walked over 
the familiar places, visited the old oaks and 
hickories, still full of leafy honors; and as 
they proceeded, McDuffie, with a keen look 
at his companion, as if he were searching his 
friend's bosom and detecting its emotions, 
asked from time to time if every thing was 
the same — if the other remembered this or 
that particular feature in the landscape or 



James L. Petigru. 37 

tlie school-ground. ISTotliing was forgotten. 
They went to the pure spring at the foot of 
the steep hilL Mr. Capers made cups again 
of the broad leaves of the hickory, and the 
two drank once more in the old fashion at 
the fountain where they had drank so copi- 
ously in former times. And as they did 
these things, and talked of old companions 
who had passed away like the school and 
were no more, tears ran down their faces. 
Would any one have thought that the stern 
Eoman profile of the Carolina orator sur- 
mounted so tender a heart, whatever may 
have been expected from the warm and cor- 
dial nature of his friend ? 

The great reputation of the Willington 
school drew scholars from all parts of the 
state — from the mountains, the parishes, the 
city. The number reached two hundred and 
fifty. Many were sons of wealthy parents. 
The rustic appearance of the new scholar 
was a subject of remark with the young pa- 
tricians, the wearers of broadcloth and fine 
linen. They harassed the stranger in home- 
spun with the annoyances that school-boy 



;>S Me 31 OIK of 

mnlioe or inlseliiof so ]>i'oinptly supplies until 
it moots or toars rotaliatiou. The new-comer 
was driven from tlie open places of resoi*t by 
tlio devices of Lis companions. It ^^•as a 
great trouble io Lis social and cordial nature, 
and Avitli a lioavy heart Le retreated to one 
of tlie Luts, where ho applied himself to his 
o-ranunar with redoubled dilio-ence. He tried 
to foro'ct his cares in Lis studies. Presently 
he felt a smart as though something had 
stung him. He .sprang from his seat, and 
saAv that one of his tormentors liad inserted, 
through one of the openings of the log cabin, 
a long stick burning at one end, and applied 
it to the seat of his pantahx-)ns. This was 
too nuicli for mortal endurance. The book 
was tllro^^"n on the ground. The injured 
party rushed on his assailant, and a desper-^ 
ate iiirht ensued, in which the insulted com- 
batant proved victorious. 

The next day a court of sessions was held 
in the school-room. The niles of the institu- 
tion prohibited lighting. All the whipping 
in the establishment was the prerogative of 
the venerable doctor. His rights had been 



James L. Petigku. 39 

violated, and the two boys were arraigned 
before him to show cause why they should 
not be punished for their infraction of law 
and contempt for authority. The persecuted 
party told his story fairly and manfully. He 
had a talent for stating a case. He mention- 
ed his provocations, his forbearance, his ef- 
forts to avoid the wrongs to which he had 
been subject, and the final injury which had 
exasperated him beyond all self control. The 
defeated culprit had nothing to say, and said 
nothing. The reverend judge, having heard 
the case, inflicted the same punishment on 
both parties with the most scrupulous ex- 
actness. The wrong-doer and the wronged 
fared alike. 

I heard Mr. Petigru tell the story for the 
first time about a year before his death. 
Mention had been casually made of a man 
by the name of Ramsay, a resident, it is be- 
lieved, of Beaufort District, when Petigru re- 
marked, " Why, that is the very person with 
whom I had a fight at Waddell's school," and 
he then related the whole adventure. Even 
at that distant period, nearly sixty years aft- 



40 ' Memoir of 

er the affair, he seemed to feel the gross in- 
justice with which he had been treated. The 
pain of the punishment was nothing; he Avas 
as able to bear it and forget it as any man ; 
it was the injustice that had sunk into his 
heart, and that still lingered in his memory. 
It was an offense not so much against him as 
against the great cardinal virtue which he 
reverenced all his life. 

The effect of his manly conduct through- 
out the adventure had the effect, however, in 
the school, of placing him thenceforward in 
his proper position, and his assiduity and 
ability assumed a place speedily in the high- 
est rank. 

Many years after this, at the death of Dr. 
Waddell, Mr. Petigru was called upon and 
attempted to make an address on the occa- 
sion. He was so much overcome by the ten- 
derness of his feelings as to be obliged to 
abandon the undertaking. 

There are numerous interesting and char- 
acteristic facts, without doubt, connected with 
his school-life at Dr. WaddelFs academy, but 
his contemporaries have passed away, and 



James L. Petigru. 41 

the incidents are forgotten. Mr. Capers, the 
nearest to him that I have met, but separated 
from him by an interval of eight years, says 
Petigru was remembered in the school as one 
of its great lights, like McDuffie and a few 
more. 

What his attainments were at Willino;ton 
I have no means of knowing. That they 
were remarkable may be inferred from the 
fact that the master of the school proposed 
to him at the end of three years to take the 
place of assistant teacher. But the brill- 
iant and persevering pupil had other views. 
From Willington he went to Columbia, and, 
in December, 1806, entered the class that was 
graduated in 1809, being the fourth class from 
the first opening of the college. During the 
period of his collegiate studies he was a teach- 
er in the Columbia Academy, and was per- 
mitted to live outside of the college bounds. 
He depended on his own exertions for sup- 
port, and these exertions with difficulty sup- 
plied him with books, board, and clothing. 
On one occasion he refused an invitation to 
dine with a gentleman of his acquaintance 



42 Memoir of 

because Lis insufficient dress was an insuper- 
able obstacle. 

It was in colleo-e that I first knew him. 
As members of the same class we were close- 
ly associated. We talked, walked, and read 
together. A summer night we once spent 
over the wild wit of Rabelais. I served as 
reader and he as audience. The reading: was 
in a loud, fantastic tone, adajDted to the gro- 
tesque fancies of the old monk, in such pas- 
sages as when he tells us, for example, of the 
exploits of Gargantua, or of the magnificent 
speech of Janotus de Bragmardo, when he 
supplicated the restoration of the church bells 
which the monarch had carried away from 
the cathedral of Notre Dame, and had hung 
for ornament to the mane and tail of his won- 
derful mare. Daylight found us engaged in 
the coarse but irresistible merriment of the 
modern master of broad humor and boister- 
ous wit. In a week or two after this he 
handed me a favorite poet for admiration, 
and, to banter him, I read a verse or two in 
the tone and manner I had used in reading 
Rabelais. I only exposed myself to a sar- 



James L. Petigrit. 43 

casm. "All !" lie said, " I tlioiigM your taste 
liad suggested tlie mode of reading Kabelais, 
and that you adapted tlie manner to the au- 
thor, but I find you make no distinction be- 
tween pathos and farce." 

His conversation in college, as every where, 
was original and attractive. He was quick 
and pointed in quotation and reply. Some 
one remarked in the college-yard that genius 
and insanity were near neighbors, and ad- 
duced, as evidence of the fact, the examples 
of Collins, Cowper, Swift, and others. A pas- 
sage was referred to in Hume as noticing and 
explaining the affinity. Petigru replied that 
Dryden had said the same thing before Hume, 
and more clearly and tersely : 

" Great wits are sure to madness near allied, 
And thin partitions do their bounds divide." 

He was addicted to poetry. His father's 
library comprised the works of Dryden and 
Pope, and the young lover of books had form- 
ed his taste from the writings of these great 
masters of English verse. One of his fellow- 
students, in a room adjoining, wrote a few 
lines on the merits of Pope, and left them on 



44 Memoir of 

the table. Tlie lines were somewliat dispar- 
aging, in tlie tone of a certain modern school 
which exalted its own claims at the expense 
of its predecessors. Petigru found the criti- 
cism where it was lying, and forthwith wrote 
a comment on the critic's performance in cor- 
responding verse. I give it from memory, 
after the lapse of more than half a century : 

"Pity! that scribblers should aspire 
To write of Pope without his fire ; 
To criticise, in witless lines, 
The wit in every page that shines ; 
To chide, in verses dull and tame, 
The poet's verse of endless fame ; 
His taste assail in tasteless strains, 
And earn a Dunciad for their pains." 

The sarcasm applies to the whole school 
of hypocrites, and their efforts to decry the 
brilliant poet of Queen Anne's time in at- 
tempting to exalt their own. 

The leaning of Mr. Petigru was not to act- 
ive sports or exercises. He had no taste for 
them, or was unwilling to waste his time in 
the pursuit. He was never seen engaged at 
ball, like Stephen D. Miller, afterward gov- 
ernor of the state, who was an adept at the 



James L. Petigeu. 45 

game, and never tired of playing it ; nor was 
lie ever employed like Gregg and Mur]3liy, 
the leaders of their class — one subsequently 
a senator and successful lawyer in Columbia, 
the other a governor of Alabama and mem- 
ber of Congress. The singularity in Petigru 
proceeded from no want of alertness or vig- 
or, for he was a strong, active man ; nor was 
it from any w^ant of genial sympathy, since 
he was always ready for a walk, a chat, or an 
adventure whenever one was suggested. 

There was one art or accomplishment in 
which he was ambitious to excel, but his suc- 
cess bore no proportion to his efforts. He 
was fond of dancing. A man by the name 
of Sudor set up a dancing-school in Colum- 
bia, and, with other college lads, Mr. Petigru 
became a pupil. But he was never able to 
acquire any skill in executing pigeon- wings, 
which were the pride of the teacher's heart, 
nor in maneuvering through the stately steps 
of the minuet, which still lingered on the 
floor of the ball-room. His mode of dancing, 
like his mode of talking and acting, was pe- 
culiar to himself, and was sometimes so much 



46 Me 



MOIR OF 



more hearty and original tlian graceful tliat 
it forced a smile from tlie ladies engaged 
witli liim in tlie dance. On one of these oc- 
casions, long after he left college, seeing some 
signs of risibility more obvious than j^olite, 
he turned to a friend looking on, and said, in 
a whisper loud enough to be heard, " The la- 
dies think I am dancing for their amusement, 
whereas I am dancing altogether for my 



own." 



He was graduated in 1809, and received 
the first honors of his class. The second 
were awarded to his old schoolmate, George 
Bowie, of Abbeville, who moved to Alabama, 
and acquired reputation and high office in 
the state. The toil and privations of the 
destitute scholar who labored for suj^port 
had been long and hard, but unflinching per- 
severance secured his triumj)h. 

Soon after obtaining his degree Mr. Peti- 
gru visited his family. He was received, we 
may readily believe, with joyous acclama- 
tions. He had surpassed their expectations 
or their hopes. But he found no cause for 
rejoicing in the condition of the family. The 



James L. Petigru. 47 

narrow fortunes of tlie household had be- 
come narrower still. Debts had been con- 
tracted. The old farm, his birth23lace, had 
been taken before to satisfy some of these ; 
negroes had gone to pay others. He grieved 
over the toils of a mother whom he tenderly 
loved, and the want of provision for the fu- 
ture advancement of a promising family of 
her sons and daughters, for whom his heart 
was deeply concerned. What could he do 
for them — how could he aid them ? 

It was the great problem of his life. He 
went to see his uncle Finley. His uncle, 
with worldly wisdom, commended him for 
diligence at college, and counseled him to 
remove to some new country, or at least to 
sever himself from the falling fortunes of his 
family. "I will never desert my mother," 
was the reply. " Then," the uncle answered, 
"you will all sink together. Ruin is inevi- 
table. The case is hopeless." He returned 
home with these hard sayings in his mind. 
He threw his arms round his mother's neck, 
wept for the unhappy fortunes of the house, 
and expressed the wish that they could to- 



48 Memoir of 

gether be snatched away by some sudden 
convulsion of Nature from the fate that 
seemed to await them — that they might rest 
together on the hill-side by her exiled father, 
and that none of the helpless children of her 
love should be left to encounter unavailingly 
the world's coldness and contumely. But 
the persevering, hopeful, Christian spirit of 
the pastor's daughter cheered and encouraged 
him. She advised that he should go where 
Fortune invited. He could best assist his 
home by leaving it. He would not be de- 
serting his mother, but aiding her and his 
family by seeking the means of helping them 
where they could most easily be found. 

The calm judgment of the mother reas- 
sured him. He resolved to try his fortunes 
in Beaufort District. Influential friends se- 
cured a school for him in the lower part of 
St. Luke's parish, on the Eutaws, near the 
Baptist church, which made his school-room. 
His purpose was to devote himself to the 
study of law, and to teach in the mean time 
for support. While engaged in this double 
scheme for the present and the future, he 



James L. Petigru. 49 

boarded in tlie family of tlie Rev. Dr. Sweet, 
the pastor of the church. 

The doctor's church was somewhat roman- 
tic in its appearance, "bosomed high in tufted 
trees," and pleased his young guest, but the 
place of baptism was not inviting. It was a 
large hole at the head of a salt-water creek, 
and its waters, to the uninitiated eye of the 
stranger, had nothing purifying about them. 
The doctor himself, if not quite the equal of 
Isaac Watts or Robert Hall, the two great 
luminaries of his sect, was an exemplary and 
devout man. There was nothing to complain 
of The host was kind, the neighborhood 
wealthy and refined, and the young teacher 
spent his time not unpleasantly in his new 
home. The friendship of Judge Huger ren- 
dered his introduction into the best houses 
more easy, and his wit and vivacity soon 
made him a favorite with them all. 

Not long after he had been fairly fixed in 
his new quarters, his reverend friend found 
occasion to visit the Baptist brethren of 
Beaufort. He embraced the opportunity to 
write. It was the beginning of a correspond- 

C 



50 Memoir of 

ence tliat ran througli fifty years. In his let- 
ter lie sjDeaks favorably of his " host." " My 
host," he says, " is about to stretch forth to 
the faithful of Beaufort the things that are 
holy. I have determined to write, therefore, 
desiring to make my letter profitable by send- 
ing it along Avith the merchandise of great 
price, concluding (wisely you will allow) that 
it may derive some advantage from the con- 
nection. It has been said of Shaftesbury 
that he makes an objection to Christianity 
because it contains no precepts by which 
friendship is enforced. My host, if he had 
been one of the twelve, would have obvia- 
ted the objection by many words in its fa- 
vor. Now the disciple merely of a disciple 
in the one hundred and forty-fourth degree, 
he can show his philanthropy by his deeds 
only ; and after telling us that few can avoid 
the gulf of perdition, he will descend from 
the pulpit, and comprehend with his benev- 
olence the many whom his doctrine has not 
comprehended." 

Some months after he hears that a college 
friend is engaged to be married, and makes 



James L. Petigru. 51 

an inquiry respecting his matrimonial j)ros- 
pects. " Scarron," lie says, " acknowledged 
in Ms marriage-settlement tlie receijDt of four 
Louis d'ors, two large murdering black eyes, 
tlie most elegant figure, two beautiful hands, 

' and a great deal of wit. What kind of a 
Scarron will om- friend Tom make, and where 
will the parallel fail?" His friend Tom 
might have acknowledged two eyes equally 
large and dangerous, and a dowry about 
equal to the four gold pieces, but the wit 
was lacking, or perceptible only to a lover's 
ear. Of another wedding lately celebrated 
between a gay but elderly widow and a New 

J^ngland adventurer much younger than her- 
self, he predicts that the unlucky youth will 
soon sigh after his native home ^^ in the north 
countrie." The poor man lost his wits from 
that or other causes. 

In other letters written about the same 
time he laments over his lost zeal for study. 
He is almost inclined, he says, to wish that 
" he was fairly within the vulgar pale, lord- 
ing it over a farm, talking of venison, drum- 
fish, cotton-seed, and politics. This is the 



52 . Memoir of 

state in wMcli a man quietly vegetates, and, 
like otlier vegetables, is governed by steady 
principles, and is led to dissolution by regu- 
lar gradations, without the annoyance of 
passion or eccentricity of mind." He had 
evidently come to the conclusion that our 
low country planters have a genius for the 
school of Epicurus — for the philosopher's 
mode of living, at least, if not for his stud- 
ies. 

During the vacations of the winters follow- 
ing he relieved the monotony of his country 
life by visits to Charleston. It was a time 
of war in one of these, and he met many of 
his old friends, some in service and others 
seeking it. " I was amazed," he wrote, " at 
the sight of our friend James T. Dent, who is 
here expecting an ajDpointment from Wash- 
ington. You may remember his steady at- 
tachment to the maxim of Creech's Hor- 
ace: 

" 'Not to admire is all the art I know 

To make men happy, and to keep them so.' 

He has been wandering about carelessly, im- 
proving his knowledge to the detriment of 



James L. Petigru. 53 

his purse ; but, while one's capital is not yet 
gone and his hopes are young, there is noth- 
ing to prevent pleasure. 

" I met Bull too, and was positively aston- 
ished. I am as much pleased at his good 
fortune as I was surprised at his sudden ap- 
pearance. He is considered the governor's 
private secretary, though it has not been for- 
mally announced. It is a snug post, and 
opens the world to him in a very advanta- 
geous manner. 

" There was no pique or misunderstanding 
between him and General Alston. The boy 
grew restive, and, as the method agreed on 
between the parties precluded coercion. Bull 
refused to receive the salary any longer, and 
left the place contrary to the general's wish- 
es." W. H. Bull had gone from college to be 
a private tutor in Alston's family, and the 
boy alluded to, an only son, the grandson of 
Aaron Burr, was too much petted to submit 
to discipline. 

" I am in comfortable quarters," he says, at 
a subsequent period, " with Bob Taylor, at 
Mrs. Bee's, wdio has more of the milk of hu- 



54 Memoie of 

man kindness than I used to tliink ]3ossible 
for any liousewife. I can not make a like re- 
turn to tlie lieroi-comic story of your letter^ 
but I can tell you of a damned rascally thing 
of recent occurrence. A privateer, tlie Re- 
venge, Captain Butler, put into this port two 
weeks ago. The common sailors had divided 
more than a thousand dollars apiece, and this 
overflow came by robbing a Spanish ves- 
sel. They robbed her crew and j)assengers 
not only of all their money, but of every rag 
of clothing except what was on their backs. 
The pirates strutted through Charleston pro- 
claiming this deed, displaying their gold 
watches and fine clothes, and not a soul took 
any notice of it, till at length the crew got to 
fighting among themselves, and one inform- 
ed. Even then the marshal arrested none 
but the captain, and, as it is said, retained no 
evidence against him. Thus; to the dishonor 
of our name, these pirates, in all probability, 
will go off with impunity." 

In another letter the writer speaks of hav- 
ing met with General Tait at the Planter's 
Hotel, and remarks that he ^' never met him 



James L. Petigku. 55 

witlioiit being struck by his misfortunes and 
tlie calmness witli wliicli lie bore tliem." 

Tait was a man of many adventures. He 
had served in the American war with the 
commission, I believe, of captain in Roberts's 
Artillery. At the close of the war, or when 
the excitement of revolution grew strong in 
France, he hurried across the Atlantic to offer 
his sword to the new republic; but the 
French were always more ready to lend 
swords than to borrow them, and had plenty 
of as]3iring spirits at home without seeking 
them abroad. His fortunes were not pros- 
perous. Hq was in service, however, and 
reached the title and rank of general. He 
was one of the officers in command of the ex- 
pedition that landed on the coast of England, 
and were made prisoners on landing by the 
troops and local militia. It was said that 
the French army on this occasion was a col- 
lection of rogues, and the sailing of the squad- 
ron a sort of general jail delivery. 

On the return of Tait to France he was to- 
tally neglected, and was constrained at last 
to return to his own country. How he lived 



56 Memoir of 

in Charleston nobody could tell, probably on 
tlie charity of his hostess, Mrs.^Calder. He 
was a stoic in temper, and bore the ills of 
fortune with equanimity. He had the spirit 
of a projector too, which is more potent than 
philosoj)hy in enabling its possessor to brave 
the calamities of life. It supplies him with 
constant employment, and a fund of hope that 
never fails. Tait was among the inventors 
of perpetual motion; went to Philadelphia 
to perfect his machine, and was heard of 
no more. He died, perha23s, in the poor- 
house. 

He was a man of striking appearance, tall, 
muscular, well-formed, with a jDleasing coun- 
tenance and agreeable address. His long 
white hair flowed over his shoulders, and 
gave dignity to his person. His conversation 
was very pleasing. His varied and long ex- 
jDerience could not fail to give it many charms. 
He was familiar with the incidents and char- 
acters of two revolutions, of periods imbued 
with the deepest interest for all ages. Mr. 
Petigru knew the relatives of the battered 
adventurer somewhere in the upper districts 



James L, Petigru. 57 

of South Carolina, and never failed, in visit- 
ing the city, to seek the poor old veteran, to 
manifest a lively concern in his troubles, and 
to admire the magnanimity with which he 
endured the ills of a long and luckless ca- 
reer. 

Some time after, in another visit, he says, 
" Nobody has met jne with more cordiality 
than Mrs. Calder at the Planter's Hotel. The 
good lady took hold of my hands, called me 
her son, and, what was more extraordinary, 
remembering I had left her house on a for- 
mer visit at the time of her son's death, she 
burst into tears, and declared she could never 
be restored to tranquillity again. She look- 
ed, indeed, very much reduced. Neverthe- 
less, the hostess at length predominated, and 
she joined with much glee in some of Frank 
Hampton's broadest jokes. Frank is another 
of the old fraternity that 1 find here. This 
may be said of Frank, that I see no difference 
in him now in his prosjDerity, a gay and gal- 
lant officer, from what he was before. He is 
the same, only greatly improved." Frank 
Hampton was the younger son of General 

C2 



58 Memoir of 

Hampton, and brother of tlie late Colonel 
Wade Hampton, of Columbia. 

These occasional visits to tlie city were pro- 
ductive of great enjoyment to one so social 
in liis nature as Mr. Petigru. They were in- 
structive too. 

His keen, observing mind was always on 
the alert, and caught the varieties of charac- 
ter that it encountered with marvelous facil- 
ity. It was active every where. He was a 
frequent visitor in the country at Mrs. Hey- 
ward's, of Whitehall, and in grateful terms 
sjDoke of the advantages he derived from her 
library, and still more from her conversation. 
" In truth," he remarked, in one of his letters, 
" she is a wonderful old lady, a vara avis in 
terris, and has, with the garrulity of a wom- 
an, the ideas and language of a man." 

To this wonderful old lady he wrote verses. 
It was her custom to intrust her pens to him 
to be repaired, and quills to be converted 
into pens. On one occasion she sent him a 
great many to be made or mended at once, 
and he returned them with a cojDy of verses. 
I regret to say that I have lost the verses. I 



James L. Petigru. 59 

remember two lines only at tlie beginning, 
and two at tlie end. He addresses tlie pens 
as " creatures of the element" — as 

"Plastic beings, artists quaint, 
Air to bind, and thought to paint." 

He expatiates on their powers and privileges, 
their happiness in serving a lady so worthy 
of their ministering influences, and exhorts 
them, at the close, to hasten to their service : 

" Go, nor serve your queen amiss ; 
Fate has made your service bliss." 

The paper containing the verses were wrap- 
ped about the pens as a case to hold them, 
and the writing was on the inner side. The 
lady took out pen after pen as she needed 
them, without unfolding the paper, and the 
unhappy poet, not knowing this, suffered, 
week after week, the mortification, keener 
than all others, of neglected verse. It was 
only when the store of pens was exhausted, 
and the paper disclosed its hidden freight of 
wit, that the author received his reward in 
the lady's thanks and praises. 

In one of his visits to Mrs. Heyward he 
witnessed what he was accustomed to relate 



60 Me3[oir of 

as a proof that, if society now is not so full 
of graceful observances as formerly, neither 
is it as free of touching the extremest verge 
of a just decorum. 

He dined at Whitehall in a large company. 

One of them was General P , on his way 

from his plantation to Charleston. The par- 
ty was numerous, and Petigru sat among the 
juniors, " below the salt," as he described it, 
at the foot of the table, with Tom Hevward, 
the old lady's son. The general talked in 
the fashion of the Eevolution at the lady- 
end of the table, using words more pregnant 
with meaning than prudish in dress. The 
younger parties caught a j)hrase only occa- 
sionally of what was intended for the la- 
dies' ears. There was at least no false deli- 
cacy or affectation in the lan2:uao:e. When 
the rest of her guests were gone, Mr. Hey- 
ward said to Mr. PetioTu, " Did you hear the 
conversation at my end of the table V " Yes," 
he replied, " I caught portions of it from time 
to time." " And what did you think of it ?" 
was the next question. ^'Why," said the 
o^uest, with some hesitation, '' I thouo-ht it 



James L. Petigru. 61 

rather salt." ^' You may well say so," Mrs. 
Heywarcl answered; ^'it was very salt in- 
deed." 

Mr. Petigru thought highly of Tom Hey- 
ward, the son. The vigorous mind of the 
mother overshadowed him, and he hardly re- 
ceived his just estimate from the friends of 
the house or from the community. Petigru 
was accustomed to quote one of his friend's 
sayings as indicating capacity for acute think- 
ing and terseness of expression. Mr. Hey- 
ward said, " Whatever parties may exist in 
a country, and under whatever names they 
may go, there are always two aristocracies — 
the aristocracy of wealth and the aristocracy 
of talent ;" and, turning to his companion, he 
added, " You belong to one and I to the other." 

Mr. Petigru was a frequent guest at Mr. 
Neufville's, on Graham's Neck. Mr. Neuf- 
ville was an accomplished man of the world, 
and was noted for a celebrated duel in which 
he had outmaneuvered Boone Mitchel, the 
most expert duelist of the day. The host 
loved wit and vivacity, and appreciated the 
brilliant qualities of his young visitor. 



62 Memoir of 

Mrs. Neufville rejoiced in juvenile com- 
j)any, and tlie "belles of tlie neighborhood 
were often at her house. The results of 
youthful assemblages and associations are 
easily anticipated, Petigru got so far in 
their common consequences as to write verses 
to the young ladies, the usual symptom of 
being in love. The aloe was abundant about 
the premises of " Eocky Point," the Neufville 
residence. The large thick leaves were cut 
and carved into names and verses. Miss 

C remarked that the plants were more 

fruitful in wit and poetry than in flowers, 
and the young gentleman improved the oc- 
casion by producing some of his own. 

He sent me the verses in a letter. I insert 
them with his comment. The comment is 
not in the tone of a des23onding or anxious 
lover. It is neither pathetic nor plaintive, 
but in a jocose mood, intended, no doubt, to 
protect himself from his correspondent's rail- 
lery. 



James L. Petigku. 63 

THE ALOE. 
"Though bitter the aloe, 'tis pleasant to gaze 
On a plant of such wonderful birth, 
That blossoms but once in the limited days 

Allotted the children of earth. 
And such, lovely maid, is the passion I prove ; 

Yet, ah ! it depends upon you, 
Whether, doomed to endure like the aloe, my love 
Must be like it in bitterness too." 

" How do you like them ?' he asks. " Short 
and sweet, ay ! Epigrammatic, forsooth ! 
Tell me your opinion. I suppose you think 
Tom Moore has reason to complain of the 
first stanza. Do you think it so near a theft 
as to be actionable V 

The stanzas met with favor from the lady. 
They were not so unfortunate as a sonnet 
which the writer had finished with great care 
on a similar occasion, and submitted to the 
critical judgment of The Courier. It was 
rejected by Mr.Willington as too imperfect 
for publication. He used to say that it was 
the greatest mortification of his life, for he 
thought he had been unusually successful in 
his work. Whatever the fate of the verses 
on the aloe, the suit with the lady was not 



64 Memoie of 

prosperous. She rejected the addresses, if. 
not tlie poetry. 

It was not a desperate case. If the pas- 
sion went beyond a poetical fancy with the 
lover, it was neither bitter nor durable like 
its emblem. It was short-lived as the com- 
mon flowers of the sj)ring season. A few 
months stripped its object of the illusions 
that an excited imagination had lent her, and 
restored him to his freedom. His time was 
not yet come for entering as a denizen the 
paradise of young men and young maidens, 
and partaking what Cowper calls " the only 
bliss of paradise that has survived the fall." 

Two years of the interval between his 
leaving college and being admitted to the 
bar were spent in Beaufort. He was elected 
by the board of trustees, in January, 1811, a 
tutor in the Beaufort College. The president 
of the college died of fever in the autumn of 
the year, and the duties of the whole school 
devolved on Mr. Petigru. They were dis- 
charged with zeal and ability. The teacher 
])ecame a favorite with all parties — with the 
inhabitants at large, who appreciated his con- 



James L. Petigru. 65 

versation and companionable qualities ; witli 
tlie boys, who delighted in the genial humor 
that lent itself readily in play -hours to their 
amusements. Stern as a Turk in upholding 
the laws of discipline, he sometimes resorted 
to the most decisive modes of enforcing them. 
At the Eutaw school he had put one of his 
female scholars out at the window, ^nd or- 
dered her home to get her lesson. In Beau- 
fort he detected a truant near the school, 
and carried him on his back up stairs to the 
school-room. But, joyous as one of them- 
selves when the hour of study was over, he 
would sometimes spin tops or play marbles 
with as much glee as any of their number. 

At the end of the year there was an elec- 
tion for the presidency. Mr. Petigru was a 
candidate for the place. He said, at a later 
period, that, if he had succeeded, it would 
have fixed him in the occupation of teaching, 
and changed the whole course of his life. 
He would have risen, in that case, with cer- 
tainty to the Presidency of the Carolina Col- 
lege. Who can calculate the loss experi- 
enced by the college and the state in missing 



66 Memoir of 

Ms services ? Any body can make a lawyer 
or politician, but where could sucli a college 
president be found within the limits of the 
country ? In learning, endurance, and activ- 
ity — in vigor and originality of mind and 
character — in moral elevation, in fidelity to 
duty, in commanding authority — in all the 
attributes by which a teacher would give 
form to the student's character as a gentle- 
jnan and a man, where could his equal be 
found? But the great prize was not to be 
ours. Diis aliter visum. The trustees thought 
otherwise. They preferred the growth of 
New Englanel to the home production, elect- 
ed Mr. Hurlbut, and sent our disajDpointed 
candidate back to St. Luke's and the law. 

It was some time, however, before the trus- 
tees could find a suitable person to take the 
assistant's place, and Mr. Petigru remained 
in the college some months longer. While 
the change of dynasty was still new, and the 
abdicated and lately-elected monarch w*ere 
strangers each to the other's character, an in- 
cident endangered their amicable relations. 
During the time that Petigru had acted as 



James L. Petioeu. 67 

president lie had used an arm-chair of his 
own providing in the principal room. When 
he took his place in the lower department 
the chair remained. He wanted it in a day 
or two, and sent a boy to bring it. The mes- 
senger returned saying the president refused 
to give it. up. The president, Hurlbut, had 
not yet learned his subordinate's nature, im- 
patient always of j^ersonal wrongs and prompt 
to resist them. He would have given a doz- 
en chairs at a word of request, and have cav- 
iled over one of their legs if lawless author- 
ity demanded its delivery. The president 
was speedily enlightened. The assistant 
strode into the room, seized his property, 
shouldered it, and marched off to his own 
quarters in a manner too significant to be 
mistaken. 

It was a revelation of the man that Mr. 
Hurlbut never forgot. The j)arties lived aft- 
erward on the most amicable terms, for the 
president was really an estimable man, and 
the assistant was frank, placable, and ready 
to appreciate merit wherever he found it. 
During the time he spent in Beaufort he en- 



68 Memoir of 

joyed the advantage of Mr. William Robert- 
son's office and friendly attentions, 

Mr. Petigru was admitted to tlie bar at 
Charleston in December, 1812, in company 
with an old school-fellow, J. F. Trezevant, R. 
Y. Hayne, and John M. Verdier, of Beaufort. 
"I am about to be admitted," he says in a 
letter from the city, " with my old class- 
mate (at WaddeU's school) Trezevant, who 
will make, or I am deceived, a very good at- 
torney." As soon as admitted he began 
practice in Beaufort District, attending the 
courts also of Colleton and Barnwell, which 
together constitute the southeastern circuit. 
His head-quarters were at Coosawhatchie ; 
the summer he spent at some summer resort 
in the neighborhood. 

Coosawhatchie, at that time the judicial 
capital of Beaufort District, lies on the road 
that leads from Charleston to Savannah, and 
was always so well situated for catching bil- 
ious fever as never to miss it. It was hardly 
habitable during the summer. The evil in- 
creased as the woods were cut down, and 

• 7 

the moist, fertile soil was exposed to the ac- 



James L. Petigru. 69 

tion of the sun. To live in the village two 
consecutive summers became almost impossi- 
ble for white men. Few ever attempted it. 
There was one exception — just enough to 
prove the rule. The exception was Mr. Bas- 
silue, who kept a shop, and furnished board 
and lodging for lawyers and clients in term- 
time. He was able to live with country 
fever in all its varieties, as conjurers in 
Bengal handle venom-ous serpents without 
harm or danger. He must have been anoint- 
ed in infancy with some patent drug of mys- 
terious efficacy. The aligator in the neigh- 
boring creek was not safer than he. To ev- 
ery white man but himself a summer in Coo- 
sawhatchie was death. It was unnecessary to 
try a criminal there charged with a capital 
offense. All that was required was to put 
him in jail in May to wait his trial at the 
November court. The state paid for a coffin, 
and saved the expenses of trial and execu- 
tion. At night the jailer thought it unnec- 
essary to remain in the jail. He locked his 
doors and went away to some healthier place 
until morning, confident that his prisoners 



70 Memoir of 

had neither strength nor spirit to escape. At 
last the lawyers became dissatisfied. They 
loved fair play as well as fees, and desired to 
see the rogues brought to justice in the reg- 
ular way, with a chance for their lives such 
as the assistance of a lawyer always affords 
them. The general jail delivery brought 
about by fever prevented the thief from be- 
ing duly hanged and the coimsel from receiv- 
ing his retainer. The culprit escaped the 
halter through the climate, not through the 
bar. 

The whole proceeding was informal. Pe- 
titions were got up to change the site of the 
court-house and jail to a healthy place, and 
Coosawhatchie has ceased to be the district 
capital. It is now deserted. When Mr. Peti- 
gru began to practice law the village was in 
its palmiest state. It had a dozen shops or 
houses, with a hundred inhabitants in the 
winter and Mr. Bassilue in the summer. Ex- 
cept Mr. Bassilue, the people retired in May 
to summer resorts. They were necessaries 
of life to the citizens of Coosawhatchie. Mr. 
Petigru retreated to Erin or Rock Spring, in 



James L. Petigeu. 71 

the pine forest, wliere lie found a friend and 
pleasant companion in Dr. North, who prac- 
ticed physic in the parish, and had to fly like 
his patients from fever in the summer sea- 
son. 

The first partner of Mr. Petigru in the 
practice of law, and the only one during his 
residence at Coosawhatchie, was his classmate 
Trezevant, with whom he had been admitted 
to the bar, and of whose capacity to make a 
good attorney he had expressed at that time 
a favorable opinion. 

His chief and constant opponent at the 
bar was William D. Martin, who commenced 
practice about the same time. They were 
arrayed against each other in every case, like 
men-at-arms supporting justice on either hand. 
If the plaintiff had the aid of one, the de- 
fendant was always backed by the other. 
They sustained their several clients with 
equal zeal and vigor. One would suppose 
that they were in danger every moment of 
turning the bar's contention into personal 
conflict ; yet they were the most amicable of 
adversaries, and lived in the best possible un- 



72 Memoir of 

derstancling. They were men of frank, cor- 
dial Joyous natures, and ajDpreciated in eacli 
other the high qualities which they possessed 
in common. Their friendshij) continued for 
life. They were both beloved and esteemed ; 
yet, while one rose to high honors, and seem- 
ed to change them at will, the other toiled 
on patiently at the bar, unrewarded to the 
end except by the distinctions which popu- 
lar favor can neither give nor take away. 

Mr. Petigru began his career in the prac- 
tice of law at an inauspicious period — during 
the war which began in June, 1812. There 
was no money in the country. The planters 
were unable to sell their produce. Their best 
customer was now their enemy. Suits were 
few. The business of the courts languished. 
The lawyers were disposed to change the 
mimic battles of the bar into bloodier con- 
flicts, and take commissions or muskets in- 
stead of briefs. When two English sloops 
of war — the Moselle and Colibri — in the 
summer of 1813 were lying at anchor in Port 
Royal, and the militia of the neighboring par- 
ishes were mustered for the defense of the 



James L. Petigru. 73 

islands, Mr. Petigm marched in a company, 
under Captain Huguenin, to Hilton Head 
witli liis musket on his shoulder : no better 
soldier than he, ready for any duty, and pre- 
pared to drive a wagon or do battle in the 
front rank for the country's honor, though no 
one believed more thoroughly in the absurdi- 
ties of the war measure, and of the Democrat- 
ic party who made it. But the laws, we are 
told, are silent amid arms, and courts and fees 
for enforcing law in the war were not flour- 
ishing. He laughed, and said, at a later pe- 
riod, that the flrst retainer at this time ever 
offered him out of Coosawhatchie was at 
Jacksonborough, in the shape of a silver quar- 
ter of a dollar, by a pine-woodsman who was 
looking for a defender in a case of petty lar- 
ceny. 

At a subsequent period, when General 
Scott was trying to keep the peace in Charles- 
ton, he was recounting one day at Mr. Peti- 
gru's house an event of the war in Carolina. 
Turning to his host, he said, " You were too 
young, Petigru, to have taken a part in the 
war." " Too young !" Petigru replied, stretch- 

D 



74 Memoir of 

ing out his legs as he sat, throwing himself 
back in his chair, and crossing his hands on 
his chest — " too young, general ! why, at that 
very time I was burning with a passionate 
desire to be a hero." And he told of his ex- 
ploits on Hilton Head, and his driving a wag- 
on under Huguenin's command. 

During the difficulties in his progress, he 
talked sometimes of going to New Orleans. 
It was a point of attraction for all the young 
and enterprising — the new Mecca of fortune 
toward which all her worshipers were turn- 
ing their faces. But he always loved his 
fi'iends more than money, and he contintied 
to struggle on among or near them for dis- 
tinction and support m spite of discourage- 
ment and delays. 

The times changed in a year or two. The 
war came to an end early in 1815. Busi- 
ness revived and became active. The young 
lawyer began to make a fair income, and his 
rising reputation spread far and wide. He 
was elected solicitor of the district in 181- 
The pay of a solicitor is not large, but the 
office gives position and leads to practice. 



James L. Petigeu. 75 

" I have been elected in Columbia," lie writes 
to a friend, " while sitting down innocent of 
solicitation in Coosawhatchie. But, if you 
are disposed to wonder, you will wonder no 
longer wlien you recollect tlie zeal of Huger 
and the energy of Pringle." These gentle- 
men, Daniel E. Huger and James K. Pringle, 
were members of the Greneral Assembly from 
Charleston or the adjoining parishes — friends 
who had been won by his talents and char- 
acter, who adhered to him through life, and 
whose children after them continued the 
friendship with undiminished admiration and 
regard. 

Office, a rising reputation, an increasing in- 
come, began to induce other thoughts, to form 
visions of a home of his own framing, and a 
partner that might assist him to enjoy it. It 
is not always that the dreamers of these 
dreams wait for the assent of prudence be- 
fore they indulge in them, or become van- 
quished by their allurements. The young 
solicitor had not been insensible. One fancy, 
already alluded to, produced its harvest of po- 
etic blossoms, and died out. Another touch- 
ed his heart more seriously. 



76 Memoir of 

Tlie object was Mary Bowman, a very love- 
ly girl of Beaufort, an adopted daughter of 
lier aunt, Mrs. Longworth, with wliom she 
lived in St. Luke's parish. Her figure was 
tall and graceful. Her dark eyes formed a 
striking contrast with the purest possible 
complexion, and a sweet and gentle expres- 
sion of countenance added to her charms. 
She had every beauty of face and figm-e, 
though, to say the truth, she was not by any 
means as well suj)plied as the bride of Scar- 
ron in one of the articles enumerated in his 
marriage settlement. 

But the lady was an expectant merely of 
fortune, and her admirer unfurnished as yet 
with any thing more than genius and force of 
character — the potentialities only of wealth, 
as Dr. Johnson would call them. A rich 
suitor, a widower, with . one small child and 
two or three large plantations, made court to 
the fair one, and was forthwith accepted. 
The relatives at least thought the match too 
good to be refused. Her young friend, in 
after life, never failed to speak of her with 
gentle memories, and unabated admiration of 
her beauty. 



James L. Petigru. 77 

A young lawyer, nevertlieless, of rising rep- 
utation and growing practice, brilliant in con- 
versation, and a wiiter of poetry, has no long 
lease of his freedom, whatever escapes may 
have been vouchsafed to him. Unless he has 
old aunts or elderly sisters at home, who put 
him beyond all possibility of his ever being 
able to endure the lightest yoke of matri- 
mony, so that he flies like a scared colt at the 
mere shaking of the bridle, his fate is soon 
sealed. It was so with the youthful aspirant 
for distinction at the Coosawhatchie bar. He 
had no sisters or aunts at hand to warn or 
guard him, and his fortune was speedily de- 
cided. 

There was living at this time near Coosaw- 
hatchie a plain, frank, warm-hearted planter. 
Captain James Postell, son of Colonel Postell, 
an officer in Marion's brigade of Revolution- 
ary memory. The captain was one of the 
most hospitable men in the country, and kept 
open house during court-time for judge, law- 
yers, and lookers-on. I found a place at his 
table among other idlers. The table was a 
long one, and near its head, at the mother's 



78 Memoir of 

right hand, sat a daughter, lately returned 
from boarding-school, of the most alluring 
beauty. Her complexion was brilliant ; she 
had the finest teeth and eyes, the richest au- 
burn hair, and a sparkling vivacity of man- 
ner that attracted and fascinated all who 
came near her. I saw at a safe distance, and 
for a short time, the flashing blue eyes and 
curls of beautiful hair, the winning, imjDuls- 
ive, and somewhat willful or capricious mode 
of address, which no one could apj^roach and 
resist. The young attorney at law came too 
often within their influence to withstand their 
power. The lady was high-spirited, and ad- 
mired genius and originality of character — 
just the woman to dare the chances of matri- 
mony and defy the uncertainties of fortune 
— and they were married accordingly. 

They were married in August, 1816, by 
Dr. Waddell, at the farm of Colonel Postell, 
the bride's grandfather, not far from Bad- 
well, the home of the brides^room's wise and 
gentle mother, who would have blessed her 
newly-acquired daughter beyond measure if 
she could have tempered the young bride's 



James L. Petigru. 79 

gay, defiant nature, and taste .for fashionable 
life, and its triumplis and delusions, with, 
something of her own calm constancy of spir- 
it and quiet self control. As it was, then or 
subsequently, the bride charmed every one 
as she pleased, her young sisters of the house- 
hold especially, with the attractions of her 
lively and unaffected manners, and the grace 
and loveliness of her face and person. At 
the close of the summer the lately married 
couple returned to their home at Coosaw- 
hatchie. 

The most friendly relations had for some 
time existed between Mr. Petigru and Dr. 
Edward North. The doctor had cured his 
young friend of a fever, and taken the con- 
valescent patient to his own home for better 
nursing. From a patient Mr. Petigru became 
a welcome guest at all times in the doctor's 
house. E'orth occupied, during the winter 
season, a plantation near Coosawhatchie, call- 
ed IN^orthampton, and the newly-arrived -pair 
from Abbeville spent the first winter after 
their marriage at this place with Dr. and 
Mrs. North. 



80 Memoir of 

During a transient abode in a hired liouse 
at Coosawhatcliie in the following winter, 
their eldest son, Albert Porcher, was born. 
Some time after the family removed to a new 
house, built by Mr. Petigru himself, in the 
outskirts of the village. It stood to the south 
of the court-house, about a mile distant, on 
the main road. It was the best dwelling of 
the neighborhood, and the successful archi- 
tect of his own fortune took some jDride in 
this portion of his handiwork. He used to 
say he had made his mark in the village bor- 
ders. 

It was the first trophy of success. The 
house passed from him to Dr. Francis Y. Por- 
cher, and has since gone through many hands, 
witnessing very often, like most other habi- 
tations, the mutabilities of fortune and the 
vanity of human expectations. The house it- 
self furnishes an example. Before the death 
of the first owner it had disappeared, and not 
a vestige now remains of it. Its site is a 
camp and parade-ground for the troops of 
the Confederacy. The old church, too, in 
which he taught his school at the Eutaw, 



James L. Petigeu. 81 

lias been destroyed by fire, and the country 
about it has become a desolation under the 
hand of war. Those who knew it most inti- 
mately recognize it with difficulty now, 

The partnership with Trezevant had been 
of short duration. Mr. Trezevant died in a 
few months, and the surviving partner stood 
alone during his subsequent practice in the 
country courts. " In a few years it was evi- 
dent, nevertheless, that the field of exertion 
was too narrow for his wants and capacity ; 
he had outgrown his shell ; it was expedient 
to change it for one more in accordance 
with his increased proportions ; many friends 
urged a removal ; and in 1819 he resolved to 
leave Coosawhatchie for Charleston. 

It is not to be imagined that a man of Mr. 
Petigru's originality and force of character 
could mix as generally and continually with 
the people as one must do in the practice of 
law in a country court, without leaving vari- 
ous characteristic memories behind him in 
the minds of the community. They are not 
few in number. Two or three will be suffi- 
cient to serve as examples. 

D2 



82 Memoir of 

It is not intended in this place to allude 
to the peculiarities of his practice, to the gen- 
erosity of his nature in conducting it, the cus- 
tom he always had every where of refusing 
compensation for his services from those to 
whom he was attached as a friend, or whose 
condition was needy, or who had, as he would 
phrase it, patronized him in his obscurity or 
been kind to him when he'was poor. But, 
apart from his professional life, his mode of 
acting and talking was so unlike that of oth- 
er men, that he was often a subject of inter- 
est and anecdote with the people. 

It was one of the j)eculiarities of his char- 
acter to be at all times imi^atient of w^rong 
and brutality, and prompt in interposing to 
prevent them. On one occasion there was a 
fight going on in front of his office, under the 
very shadow of the temple of justice. It was 
one of the rustic amusements of the parish. 
A crowd surrounded the combatants. The 
affair was an enjoyment to. the lookers-on, 
and nobody interfered to stop it. Petigru's 
indignation was at last aroused by the savage 
sight and uproar. Though not a large man, 



James L. Petigru. 83 

lie liad long, powerful arms, and great mus- 
cular strength. He broke tlirougli tlie crowd, 
seized one of the parties to tlie fight by his 
collar and the waistband of his trowsers, car- 
ried him off to the office, and seated him not 
very gently in the centre of the floor, with a 
stern injunction to keep the peace. Country- 
men generally have a reverence for the law 
and the " squire," and the command was obey- 
ed without opposition or remark. The indi- 
vidual seemed bewildered at what had hap- 
pened to him, and nnable to recover his wits 
after this sudden and unusual mode of get- 
ting out of a scrape. 

At another time he was assailed in the 
court-yard with the most violent abuse by a 
turbulent fellow of the village, who lavished 
on him all the foul epithets and appellations 
he could remember or invent, of which rogue 
and scoundrel were among the most moder- 
ate. The assaulted party stood unmoved, 
with a half smile of amusement on his face. 
At last the noisy bully, having exhausted his 
ordinaiy vocabulary of abuse, bethought him- 
self of a term of reproach which at that day 



84 Memoir of 

comprised every thing hateful — lie called liim 
a " damned Federal." The word was no soon- 
er uttered than a blow, altogether unexpect- 
ed by the brawler, laid him in the sand. He 
became as quiet as a lamb, and moved away 
without a comment. But an old gentleman 
present, Mr. William Hutson, one of the re- 
mains of the defunct Federal party, thought 
the proceeding a sort of imputation on his 
old creed. " How is this," he said to Peti- 
gru, " you seem to think it a greater offense 
to be called a Federalist than to be called a 
rogue or rascal ?" " Certainly," was the re- 
ply ; " I incur no injury from being abused 
as a rogue, for nobody believes the charge ; 
but I may be thought a Federalist readily 
enough, and be proscribed accordingly, and 
so I knocked the man down by way of pro- 
test against all current misconstructions." 

He incurred subsequently, in conducting a 
case, the wrath of a tall, strapping fellow on 
the other side. They met, a morning or two 
after, at Corrie's Hotel. There was a long pi- 
azza, a little elevated from the ground, where 
Petigru was walking up and down. The dis- 



James L. Petigeu. 85 

contented person followed him to and fro, 
persisting in tlie vilest denunciations. At 
last Petigru turned round to liim, and said 
very deliberately, " Really, Barns, if I had a 
whip I should be tempted to horsewhip you." 
"You would?" said Barns. "Stay a mo- 
ment ; I'll go to the shop over the way and 
borrow one for you." He went forthwith 
and brought a whip, which he presented with 
a flourish of incredulity, defiance, and mock- 
ery. In a moment he was in the clutches 
of the enemy. A powerful hand seized him 
by the collar, another brandished the whip. 
The blows fell fast on the legs of the aston- 
ished sufferer. The lookers-on were amused 
at his contortions to avoid the stripes, until 
at last he was pushed down the steps of the 
piazza with a parting kick in the rear, and 
an admonition to return the whip to its own- 
er, with Mr. Petigru's thanks for the use of it. 
These incidents established a character 
which placed him above all similar annoy- 
ances. He soon became a favorite with the 
people, who readily appreciate a strong arm 
and resolute spirit. With all the principles 



86 Memoir of 

of a tliorougli aristocrat, so far as subordina- 
tion in society and due obedience to estab- 
lished authority are concerned, lie was as ac- 
cessible as the veriest Democrat to all classes. 
His address was always pleasant. He met 
every body with a cheerful humor and ready 
joke, and was always prepared to help the 
needy, and protect the ^vi^onged or distressed. 
If he had committed the common folly of 
yoimg lawyers, and desired to become the 
hybrid made up of half attorney and half 
politician, he might have made his way to 
the Legislature without difficulty. He took 
a wiser course, and adhered to his profession, 
aware that it requires all the attention of the 
highest faculties to obtain success. He car- 
ried this conviction with him when he re- 
moved from Coosawhatchie, and, dming his 
whole practice in Charleston, never deviated 
into politics except in compliance with his 
friends' wishes, or when he thought the coun- 
try in imminent danger. 

The removal to Charleston was a great 
step in advance on the road to fortune. The 
city had been formerly, and still was a dis- 



James L. PETiaRU, 87 

tinguislied arena for legal talent and acquire- 
ments. In the period immediately follow- 
ing tlie Revolutionary War, while Charleston 
carried on a larger importing trade than 
most or any of the I^orthern cities, the com- 
mercial capital of South Carolina furnished 
a broad field for the lawyer's skill, and great 
fortunes and reputations were acquired at the 
bar. It was the time when Pinckney and 
Rutledge, Pringle, Parker, Holmes, Ward,- and 
De Saussure, and subsequently Cheves, Dray- 
ton, and Simmons, gave purity and dignity 
to the practice and profession of law. Dur- 
ing that period the Charleston bar was infe- 
rior to none in America. Although shorn 
of a great part of its former splendor, and no 
longer presenting the same opportunities for 
fortune or reputation as in earlier times, the 
old city of Carolina still continued to promise 
high prizes in both. 

The change to the city was partly induced, 
and was made easy by an offer from. James 
Hamilton of a partnership in practice. Ham- 
ilton had been some time at the bar, and 
had received, on the elevation of Colonel 



88 Memoir of 

Drayton to the recordersliip, by the favora- 
ble consideration of tliat gentleman, the trans- 
fer of a large portion of business at the bar. 
Hamilton had vio-or and decision of charac- 
ter, address, and promj^titude of action, was 
fluent in sjDeech, and a keen manager of po- 
litical party. But necessity had never forced 
him, or perhaps he lacked the peculiar tal- 
ent for going, to any extent, into the dry 
pages of law in pursuit of precedents or prin- 
ciples, and he found that the qualities which 
are efficient before the Democracy are not of 
much weight with the bench of judges in the 
courts of justice. A partnership vrith a ris- 
ing lawyer, who had sounded the depths of 
the law's perplexing studies, would be a ben- 
efit to both. It would furnish one with the 
help he required, and give the other a posi- 
tion in the city prepared to his hand. The 
partnership was formed accordingly. 

A year or two afterward, in the summer 
of 1822, Hamilton rendered himself exceed- 
ingly popular in the state by his fiiTaness 
and enercjv durino- the alarm in Charleston 
of a negro insurrection. He had alreadv be- 



James L. Petigku. 89 

come a prominent leader in tlie state Legis- 
lature, and an active manager of its parties. 
He was the chief mover of tlie nomination 
made in it of Mr. Lowndes for the Presidency 
in December, '21. In less than a year after, 
in October, 1822, when that great statesman 
was compelled to resign his seat in Congress 
by increasing illness, Hamilton succeeded to 
the place. He abandoned the bar, for which 
he was not fitted by nature or study, and be- 
took himself to the more congenial field of 
Congressional life. The partner, left alone, 
went steadily on to widen and deepen his 
knowledge of the science to which he had 
devoted his life, became the ornament in a 
few years of the bar, and at no distant period 
its undisputed head. 

It was not without a contest, not always 
pleasant, that this supremacy was reached. 
He had many opponents, most of them fully 
disposed to observe in the conflict those cour- 
tesies of practice that had always prevailed 
at the city bar. But there was one excep- 
tion. He was an able speaker and good law- 
yer ; bold, ready, regardless of respect to op- 



90 Memoir of 

posing counsel, witnesses, or clients, and un- 
scrupulous as to the language in which he 
expressed his contempt; skilled in cajoling 
the jury and bullying the judge ; little sen- 
sitive as to his own feelings, and utterly with- 
out regard to the feelings of others. One pur- 
pose only seemed to govern him — the pur- 
230se to gain his case at all hazards. He was 
a formidable adversary, and the lawyers of 
the old school were reluctant to encounter 
his rude assault. 

But in the new-comer from the country 
court he found in no reluctant adversary a 
deeper intellect than his own, a stronger mor- 
al nature, a resolute persistency of spirit that 
nothing could daunt, weary, or deceive. No 
craft evaded his vigilance, no show of vio- 
lence stopped his resolute exposure of irreg- 
ularity in his opponent's 23ractice. The con- 
test went on month after month. It assumed 
the most threatening forms. The quarrel 
seemed sometimes ready to resolve itself into 
a fight with the weapons that Nature fur- 
nishes, sometimes to seek the more deliberate 
solution of the pistol at ten paces. A chal- 



James L. Petigru. 91 

lenge passed at one time, and they were 
bound over to keep the peace by Judge Lee 
in the District Court. Judge Prioleau had 
declined to interfere ; he thought the case 
desperate. The feud had a sudden and un- 
expected ending. A sad event, the death of 
a child by accident in Mr. Petigru's family, 
arrested the warfare. His adversary, with a 
consideration that did him honor, addressed 
a note of sympathy to the afflicted parent, 
and requested that the contest should cease. 
It ceased from that time forward. 

Mr. Petigru's progress was at once secured 
and promoted by the retirement of General 
Hayne. In 1822 Hayne was elected to the 
Senate of the United States, and left vacant 
the state office of attorney general. Mr. Peti- 
gru succeeded to the vacancy. It is an office 
of profit, dignity, and influence. The occu- 
pant receives a salary, and fees which, for the 
most part, he never fails to exact ; he is the 
law adviser of the state authorities, and con- 
trols, in some measiu'e, the political move- 
ments of the people. His official presence 
in Columbia during the session of the Legis- 



92 Memoie of 

latiire brings him into intimate association 
witli the leading men of the state, and se- 
cures to him opportunities for exercising a de- 
cided influence in public affairs. Whether 
he desires it or not, he can hardly avoid dis- 
charging these semi-official duties of his place 
as far as friends or adherents may request or 
desire. He can rarely escape from being a 
political manager, or something more. 

There was not much of this sort of work 
to be done in the various departments of pub- 
lic affairs when Mr. Petigru came to Charles- 
ton, or first occupied the attorney general's 
place. There was a pause in politics. Fed- 
eral parties, and their distinctions and dis- 
putes, were in abeyance. The great achieve- 
ment of Mr. Monroe's administration was to 
keep every thing quiet, to please every body, 
and secure a second term of office. We 
were all Federalists then, and all Kepubli- 
cans. The Missouri Question excited some 
commotion, but it subsided into compromise. 
The vexed question seemed to be settled, 
and every body was again in good humor. 
It was the reign of peace and dullness, of 



James L. Petigru, 93 

whicli Mr. Monroe was the happy representa- 
tive. 

In the state it was hard to say what prin- 
ciples prevailed, or whether any intelligible 
party distinction existed. We adopted Prio- 
leau's resolutions one year, and Smith's the 
next. The two series were antipodes in pol- 
itics. It was a mere game for power between 
Calhoun's friends and Smith's — Smith being 
right in principle, according to Southern 
views, yet losing the battle ; Calhoun wrong, 
but winning it. At clubs and barbacues, 
nevertheless, it was said and thought that 
the fate of th^ republic depended on the re- 
sult of the contest. Its only true purpose 
was to secure power and place to one or the 
other party. There was nothing else at 
issue. 

The condition of city politics was the same. 
No vital interest was at stake. The town 
was divided into two factions. The only 
matter in dispute was whether one or the 
other should control the power and emolu- 
ments of the city government. The prom- 
inent leaders were Geddes and Hamilton. 



94 Memoir of 

Their friends resorted to the weapons that 
patriots always use on such occasions. They 
held meetings, heard speeches, ate dinners, 
made toasts, and abused each other as hold- 
ing dangerous principles, and pursuing meas- 
ures injurious to the common welfare. They 
formed processions with bands of music, as- 
sembled at the houses of their chiefs, and 
dranfe all the liquor their luckless favorites 
were able to furnish. Sometimes the bands 
of dissenting j)atriots would encounter each 
other in the streets, and exchange hard words 
and brickbats. The peace of the city was in 
peril. One party was abused as aristocrats, 
the other as a rabble or mob. But there 
was little difference between them ; they dif 
fered on no important principles or purposes ; 
they both bought votes at about equal prices, 
and sought personal objects by similar means. 
The difficulties that awaited his legal ca- 
reer were not all that Mr. Petigru encounter- 
ed in his migration to the city. The family 
had the usual troubles of a domestic nature, 
not formidable, but not easy to endure. It 
is hard to find a commodious house at a mod- 



James L. Petigru. 95 

erate rent, especially in Cliaiieston, and this 
was tlie first difficult problem tliey were call- 
ed upon to solve. For some months they 
again found a temporary home with their 
steadfast friends, the Norths, who had pre- 
ceded them in removing their household gods 
to the city. 

It was during the time of their sojourn 
with the doctor in Queen Street that their 
second child was born, called Jane Caroline, 
after Mrs. North. In two months from that 
time they took possession of a house in King 
Street, near Smith's Lane. The situation was 
not desirable, and their next flight was to a 
tenement on South Bay. The house has been 
pulled down, to make room for the brick 
mansion lately built by Russel Middleton, 
president of the Charleston college. They 
removed in no long time to another residence 
on South Bay, belonging to Mr. Peronneau, 
next door to Mrs. Grimke's, then Peter 
Smith's. In this place their second son, Dan- 
iel, was born, taking the name of his god- 
father, Daniel E. Huger. Here the migra- 
tory family rested a longer time than on any 



96 Memoir of 

previous perch, but again sought another 
home in Orange Street, nearly opposite to 
James R. Pringle's. It was in this abode 
that their youngest girl was added to their 
household, now including two sons and two 
daughters. 

Again they underwent a move. In the 
year 1826 the family occupied the house 
now in the possession of Dr. Frost, in Broad 
Street. The next year Mr. Petigru bought 
the summer residence of Mr. John Middle- 
ton, at the east end of Sullivan's Island, and 
in 1828 the house at the corner of Broad and 
Friend Streets, in the city. Here the family 
migrations ceased. They had gone through 
six moves, and three, they say, are equal to a 
fire. From this time forward, with the reg- 
ularity of a pendulum, they oscillated from 
the city to the island, and from the island to 
the city. The only subsequent change for 
many years was from the east end of Sulli- 
van's to the more convenient west end, where 
Mr. Petigru took a house from James Ham- 
ilton in exchange for a debt. In the sum- 
mer, on the island, overlooking the Atlantic, 



James L. Petigru. 97 

they escaped tlie dust and heat of the town, 
and in the winter their abode in Broad Street 
was open with the most genial hospitality to 
all friends and distinguished strangers. The 
master of the household seasoned his dinners 
with unfailing supplies of humor and wit, 
which no one pretended to equal, and which 
all remembered with delight. 

A sad event broke the ordinary flow of 
Mr. Petigru's life during his city migrations, 
and filled his heart with a sorrow from which 
he never altogether recovered. He lost his 
eldest child when eight years old by an ac- 
cident. The boy was of great promise — one 
of those bright, intelligent, affectionate spir- 
its that wrap themselves closely round a par- 
ent's heart, and fill his fancy with pictures 
of the future, drawn in the freshest colors, 
and adorned with all the promised flowers 
that genius and virtue can bestow. These 
anticijDated scenes of affection and fancy were 
crushed in a moment. The father and moth- 
er were absent for an hour; when they re- 
turned home it was to find theii' son a corpse. 
He had fallen from the stairs in the third 

E 



98 Memoir of 

story of the house occupied in Broad Street 
in the year 1826, and was taken up dead on 
the lower floor. It was a terrible blow to 
the father. For the rest of his life, on the 
anniversary of the accident, during thirty*six 
years, he withdrew from all society, and, in 
the seclusion of his chamber, communed with 
his own heart and was still. How the day 
was passed no one knew except the Being 
only to whom alone he could address his 
thoughts on such an occasion. The grief 
may be comprehended by those who have 
cherished similar hopes, and seen them swept 
away by the same cause, or in other modes 
still more productive of unavailing sorrow. 

It is said that calamities never come singly. 
Two days only separated the death of Mr. 
Petigru's son from that of his mother. He 
had loved her all his life with great tender- 
ness — with a tenderness that even Cowper's 
similar devotion could not have surpassed. 
She had lived a life of patient care and love, 
had trained a large family in the paths of 
moral duty, and had gone now to her re- 
ward. Her children reverenced her with 



James L. Petigeu. 99 

deep affection, lier eldest son most of all. He 
was accustomed to say that lie got from Iter 
his constancy and perseverance, his sense of 
duty, and respect for justice and truth. Her 
lessons of virtue, daily taught and illustrated 
by persevering example, could not fail to 
produce its fruits. She died at the age of 
fifty-nine. Her eldest son, with his wife, 
hastened to Badwell to give sympathy and 
aid to the household. One brother had been 
already helped to seek his fortunes in the 
West; another was placed in the navy in 
1812 ; a third, perhaps the most beloved by 
his friends, was taken to Charleston, placed 
at school, and afterward sent to West Points 
His sisters were all objects of his love and 
attention. The three youngest were taken 
home with him. He attended to their edu- 
cation, and watched over their future happi- 
ness with parental affection and judicious 
solicitude, which continued even after they 
were established in life. He was their guide, 
philosopher, and friend. He bestowed on 
mind and character the most gentle and del- 
icate culture. They were his companions. 



100 Memoir of 

with whom he spent his evenings at home in 
pleasant intercourse. 

No one loved home more than he, or had 
the art, in a higher degree, of making it de- 
lightful to its inmates. He drew them out 
with patient adroitness to express their 
thoughts, and trained them with considerate 
skill to follow his lead, and to enjoy with 
him the conversation of the most cultivated 
minds. They felt and appreciated his nice 
judgment and unwearied kindness. The 
mind that was occupied all day with per- 
plexed questions of law, would give itself up 
in the evening to these lessons of joyous hu- 
mor and light pleasantry with his sisters at 
home. They ministered to his little wants 
during the day, and in the evenings they pre- 
sided, one or the other, over his tea. It is 
not wonderful that the affection of the sis- 
ters should assume, as it did, a form of al- 
most idolatrous devotion, for never was 
brother more faithful and constant in his 
care. They are all mothers now, each with 
the cares of a family on her heart, but they 
still cherish a love for the departed brother 



James L. Petigru. 101 

whicli neither time nor circumstance seem 
able to diminish. 

One of these sisters has drawn, with a 
ready pen and faithful memory, a picture of 
the pleasant life she witnessed and shared 
for some time in her brother's house. She 
describes the common domestic day. Though 
not a very early riser, her brother was early 
enough to go to market before breakfast. 
She accompanied him. He was induced at 
first to adopt the practice for the purpose of 
providing some select article for an invalid 
wife, to whose comfort and enjoyment he 
was always devoted with unfailing tender- 
ness, even when her calls on his care, like the 
calls of other invalids, seemed neither mod- 
erate always nor reasonable. All enjoyments 
gave way to her wishes. Except truth and 
right, the strong will of the master was ready 
to yield every thing to the suffering and 
complaining mistress of the household. Her 
desires controlled its pleasures. 

The walk to market was followed by a 
breakfast not luxurious in its arrangements. 
A large cup of strong coffee, without sugar 



102 Memoir of 

or milk, was its chief enjoyment. The morn- 
ing was given to the office. At three he 
"brought home a friend to dinner whom he 
had casually met — Hugh S. Legare, perhaps, 
or William Harper, or William D. Martin. 
The narrator tells with a delight still remem- 
bered and cherished of the wit and humor, 
the abundant knowledge, wide range of 
thought, and variety of subject that formed 
the staple of their conversation, that of the 
host exciting and directing all — of Martin, 
always cheerful, and abounding in humorous 
anecdote ; of Harper, with his rare combina- 
tion of subtle analysis and brilliant imagina- 
tion ; of Legare, overflowing with classical 
allusion, pungent criticism, and sparkling il- 
lustration, except when, in a sulky fit of surly 
discontent with Nature or society, he would 
sit brooding over the shortcomings of both in 
reference to his particular claims and merits. 
Then, after dinner, the host would go to the 
law again till far in the night — eleven or 
later ; but, late or early, his return home was 
without the appearance of weariness. 

He was always prepared for chat and 



James L. Petigru. 103 

pleasantry. Witli liis two cups of strong tea 
and copious slices of sponge-cake tliat always 
awaited him, lie would talk, or listen to the 
occurrences of the day that his companions 
might have to relate. If he talked of books, 
it was with such keen discrimination and 
delicate taste that he always seemed to catch 
and unfold the spirit and beauty of the au- 
thor with unfailing exactness. And so the 
hours wore on, till some stroke of wit would 
excite a burst of merriment, and provoke a 
mandate from the chamber of the invalid 
mistress of the mansion to save candles and 
go to bed. The partaker in these pleasant 
companies and conversations wonders now 
that she is unable to remember them more 
minutely. But pleasant conversations are al- 
ways evanescent to memory, like other beauti- 
ful things — the bright day of the past spring, 
or the flowers of the summer that is gone. 

This was the regular winter life ; the sum- 
mer on the island, as she describes it, was 
still less marked with changes. A friend on 
Sunday would share or relieve the monotony 
and quiet of the day, or partake, on Satur- 



104 Memoir of 

day, of tlie fishing-party, when Mr. Petigru 
ga^e the zest of his wit to the dinner, for 
which the rest of the company furnished the 
whiting or cavalli; for it must be admitted 
that he was not a diligent fisherman, nor 
cared to cultivate, like his friend Elliott, the 
art of harpoon, hook, or line, in deep or shal- 
low water. 

He was an active and useful citizen on the 
island, and always occu23ied in the well-being 
of its village. He Avas especially devoted to 
the Episcopal Church, which he took under 
his charge, keeping -in orderly condition its 
edifice and inclosure, and carefully extirpa- 
ting, often with his own hands, the intruding 
weeds and grasses. In the services, in de- 
fault of a regular clerk to preside over the 
music, he would persuade Mrs. Petigru some- 
times to give her aid and set the psalm or 
hymn, which she did with no deficiency of 
training. Mr. Petigru was not esjDecially 
adroit in matters of music any more than in 
dancing, but never failed to ofi^er his com- 
mendations to the lady performer on all such 
occasions. 



James L. Petigru. 105 

I remember once to have lieard these com- 
mendations made at his dinner-table, after 
the service, to the great amusement of his 
guests, and even of the lady herself, though 
half disposed to scold at the quizzical tone 
of the praises that were bestowed upon her 
skill. He remarked on the short silence aft- 
er the hymn was announced, and the anxious 
looking about of the congregation for a lead- 
er; then, he added, "arose Deborah — then 
arose Deborah, a mother in Israel, and she 
said, I, even I, will sing a song unto the Lord 
in the congregation of Israel." Any one who 
knew the usual appearance and manner of 
Mrs.Petigru would find it difiicult to repress 
a smile at the comparison between the solemn 
prophetess in the host of the Hebrews and 
the impulsive singer in the island church. 

The affection which developed and guided, 
as I have said, the character and mind of his 
mother's children, was devoted with especial 
tenderness to his own. His letters to them 
while at school in New York and Philadel- 
phia are charming specimens of what such 
letters should be. They are fall of advice 

E 2 



106 Memoir of 

tliat never degenerates into sour admonition ; 
they abound in easy pleasantry that always 
delights, playful criticism that never wounds, 
praise kept within judicious limits, author- 
ity that exacts its dues with gentle firmness, 
and suggestions for diligence drawn always 
from high and generous motives. His requi- 
sitions of improvement are not small. He 
inculcates carefully on one of his daughters 
the necessity of cultivating the languages of 
civilized Europe. One of these — the French 
tongue — he says, is indispensable. Not to 
know French implies an imputation in po- 
lite society. A liberal mind will not stop 
short of others. German he consents to pass 
over, notwithstanding its merits. But he ex- 
patiates on the language of Dante and Ari- 
osto, and recommends SjDanish, by all means, 
as the stateliest daughter of the common j)ar- 
ent of them all. As an incentive to the ac- 
quirement of this noble language, which he 
presses on his youngest daughter with un- 
wearied assiduity, he promises to himself the 
benefit of becoming her pupil as soon as she 
gets home, where they will read Cervantes 



James L. Petigru. 107 

togetlier, and enjoy what is held by liberal 
scholars to be a sufficient reward for the stu- 
dent who acquires the Spanish tongue. It is 
of this daughter that he writes to one of his 
sisters at a subsequent period, saying, " I am 
Mraid that Sue will turn out to be a wit, not- 
withstanding my efforts to prevent it." If 
he was very much in earnest in these efforts, 
we need not nevertheless wonder at their 
failure, since his example in his letters was 
very greatly at variance with his precepts. 

The scenes I have described of domestic 
and professional life, though not without 
their usual troubles, passed quietly enough 
for ten years, so far as the strife of public af- 
fairs is concerned. But at the close of the 
first decade a change began. Other actors 
came on the scene. Monroe had been gath- 
ered to his political fathers. His era of peace 
was at an end. New parties divided the 
state, or old parties took new names. Mr. 
Calhoun seized on the place of Judge Smith, 
and assumed absolute sway in the State-right 
school. The teachings of the old professor 
had been vehement enough, but they were 



108 Memoir of 

tame when compared with the fiery zeal of 
the young proselyte. 

A new chapter was introduced into the 
old creed, which the neophytes swore by, but 
the ancient disci^Dles and masters repudiated 
as spurious, and denounced as full of danger 
to the people's peace. Violent counsels be- 
gan to prevail. The selfish spirit of the 
North was not slow to furnish abundant ma- 
terials to increase the excited passions of 
their neighbors. The tariff of 1828 — the bill 
of abominations — engendered, in due time, 
the terrible chimera of nullification. It was 
like Milton's Sin conceiving and bringing 
forth Death. The political jDrodigy had few 
admirers. 

The people started back in amazement at 
the sight. It received little favor out of 
South Carolina. Its advocates professed to 
derive it from Virginia, but Virginia rejected 
the strange birth as illegitimate. Georgia 
abhorred it; Tennessee was ready to crush 
it ; North Carolina abstained from all claims 
of relationship or good-will. In South Caro- 
lina it separated friends; it divided families,; 



James L. Petigru. 109 

it made neiglibors foes. Serious enougli in 
its consequences tliroughout tlie state, it was 
charged with double hate and rage in her 
commercial capital. Frequently the adverse 
parties were arrayed against each other, and 
on the eve of coming to blows. It wanted 
but a single serious move to involve the 
whole state in civil war. It is the first step 
only, they say, that ever costs any thing; 
but, luckily for the peace of the country, the 
first step Was never taken. 

The doctrine of nullification, from the 
State-right school under the skillful teaching 
of Mr. Calhoun, professed to give a new rem- 
edy for all the evils of Federal misrule. To 
the received safeguards against the abuses 
of government — the ballot-box, the Supreme 
Court, the power to amend the Constitu- 
tion by established modes — Mr. Calhoun in- 
troduced another, more efiicacious than all 
the rest. He taught that every state which 
judged a law of the Federal government to 
be unconstitutional was entitled, under the 
Constitution, to call a convention of its own 
people, pronounce the offending law to be 



110 Memoir of 

null and void, and prevent its execution with- 
in its own limits. The scheme was repre- 
sented as an admirable remedy, safe, speedy, 
and effectual ; a peaceful one, having no sym- 
pathy with revolution or civil war; a pre- 
server, not a destroyer of the Union. It was 
within the Constitution, not opposed to it. 

The plan was so clearly just and useful 
that the sister states could not fail to see in 
it, after a time, the only safety-valve that was 
able to preserve the governmenf machinery 
from the danger of probable explosion. It 
was like offering a ship-master a small box, 
to be carried in his cabin, which, on turning 
a screw, would stop the winds, smooth the- 
waves, and rescue his ship from all apparent 
dangers. ^But, strange to say, the subtle rea- 
soning and sanguine promises of the chief of 
nullification had no success with the people 
outside of his own school. Many even of his 
old friends could not be brought to under- 
stand how a state might refuse to obey the 
laws of the Union, and yet continue a mem- 
ber of it. They insisted that nullification 
was revolution, and to call it any thing else 



James L. Petigru. Ill 

was to cheat the people by fraudulent de- 
vices. It continued to receive no favor out 
of the State of South Carolina, and to divide 
her people. 

It was some time before the line of demar- 
cation was finally drawn between friends 
who, up to a certain point, had been acting 
together as enemies of the tariff system, and 
who were friends still reluctant to part. The 
separation was retarded not only by old as- 
sociations not easily severed, but because 
many, who took ground at last in the Union 
ranks, had expressed strong views on the ne- 
cessity of vindicating the rights of the South. 
They were averse to- be driven into a seem- 
ing inconsistency on the one hand, or to an 
extreme course on the other, which they could 
not approve. They hesitated. 

Colonel Drayton was one of these. It was 
at the great dinner given in Hibernian Hall, 
comprising men of all views, that he was 
called on to declare his opinions definitely. 
The proceedings were so arranged that 
McDufiie was made the prominent speaker 
of the day. His speech was fiercely vehe- 



112 Memoir of 

ment. He appealed pointedly to Colonel 
Drayton as one of those who had drawn the 
state into her then alternative of resistance 
to the tariff laws, or tame submission to law- 
less authority. He quoted the speeches of 
Colonel Drayton delivered in Congress, full 
of invective and menace, committing the state 
to use force, if force were necessary, to main- 
tain her rights. The eloquent member from 
Charleston had pledged the state to act ; did 
he intend, it was asked, to redeem the pledge? 
The speech was received with immense ap- 
plause. Hugh S. Legare fell into an ecstasy 
of admiration, declaring that Kean himself 
could not have equaled* the action of the ora- 
tor in the finer passages of his sjDeech. The 
design was to draw or force Colonel Drayton 
into the ranks of nullification ; but the project 
failed. Drayton was a proud, sensitive man. 
He would not be schooled. It was in vain 
that Hamilton, his old friend, strove, at a sub- 
sequent meeting, to conciliate by expatiating 
on the patriotism of the mortified and oftend- 
ed chief The chief repudiated nullification, 
thought he had been hardly dealt with, and 



James L. Petigru. " 113 

betook himself finally to the camp of the 
Union party. This decision was considered, 
or represented by his former friends, as a de- 
sertion of principle ; by his Union colleagues 
as honest and honorable. It made the occa- 
sion for taking sides with the doubters, and 
the two parties were formally opposed. 

The offended self-esteem of Colonel Dray- 
ton led to unusual consequences. It rarely 
happens in our country that a man is induced 
to forswear his native land in consequence 
of mere party disputes. It was reported to 
be so, nevertheless, with him. He was so in- 
dio-nant at what he considered the ill usa^re 
and ingratitude of the democracy, that he 
shook off the dust of his feet against them, 
and departed from Charleston to a city of 
hio-her pretensions in brotherly love. 

It is certainly not pleasant to be refused 
the votes we have been accustomed to re- 
ceive, and to encounter abuse where we ex- 
pected admiration ; but these things are the 
common lot of public men, from which none 
are exempt. Even Washington once swore 
— for he swore sometimes — that, by , he 



114 Memoir of 

would rather be in his grave than be sub- 
ject, as he was, to the virulent slanders of 
the public papers. But he abandoned nei- 
ther duty, station, nor home for that reason. 
The largest self esteem may be content to fol- 
low the example. Colonel Drayton, it was 
believed or said, thought otherwise. 

There could be no doubt as to the position 
that Mr. Petigru would occupy in reference 
to these contending politicians. He took his 
place decidedly with the Union party. His 
opinions were fully and definitely formed. 
He understood thoroughly the evils of bro- 
ken government and disregarded laws. There 
could be no hesitation on his part. Loving 
his state, district, home ; appreciating them 
at a value which none Avent beyond, and in- 
capable of abandoning them, he would nev- 
'ertheless desire to see them as component 
parts always of the great republic. The dis- 
ruption of the Federal Union was to him an 
evil without remedy and without measure. 
It was the source of incalculable disjDute and 
dissension, for which there could be no ar- 
biter but the sword. Nullification was rev- 



James L. Petigru. 115 

olution, and he saw nothing in the tariff or 
in the condition of the country to justify or 
excuse revolution. The protective principle 
of the tariff had been supported and urged 
in the first Congress of the United States — 
the Congress of 1789 — by Southern delega- 
tions : by Burke of South Carolina, Jackson 
of Georgia, Macon of the old North State, 
and Madison of Virginia — by the men who 
had been busiest in forming the Federal Con- 
stitution and urging its adoption. The pro- 
tective principle had been maintained and 
saved from the attacks of the Northern com- 
mercial interest by Mr. Calhoun in 1816. To 
call the tariff unconstitutional was therefore 
absurd. 

And what just objection could be made to 
the Federal o-overnment at all on the score 
of expediency ? The whole effect of the gov- 
ernment, tariff not excepted, had been bene- 
ficial every where, not to the North only, but 
also to the Southern States. These states 
have grown from a little more than a million 
of people to eight millions, from four states 
to fourteen. They have increased in wealth, 



116 Memoik of 

if not as rapidly as tlie North, yet with a 
speed unexampled in any other country. 
That the particular benefits derived from 
manufacturing should not immediately reach 
them was not surjorising. They were agricul- 
tural states. But time would bring change, 
manufactures would soon find their way to 
the South, and we should share amply in 
whatever good they are a;ble to bestow. 

There was no cause, Mr. Petigru thought, 
for revolution. The asseverations of barba- 
cues and stump orators that the Southern 
people were slaves, that the Federal govern- 
ment was a tyrant, were nothing more than 
the clamors of a disordered imao^ination, or 
the fumes of a dinner's excitement. In the 
contentions prevailing in Congress he saw 
nothing but conflicts for political power be- 
tween North and South. The Northern peo- 
ple had outstripi^ed the Southern in popula- 
tion, and desired to see the ofiices of the gov- 
ernment in Northern hands. This inevitable 
result Mr. Lowndes saw clearly forty years 
ago, and thought it wise for the South to 
yield the hold she had so long possessed on 



James L. Petigru. 117 

political power wlien she was no longer able 
to retain it. The time had come, but South- 
ern politicians refused to see its exigencies. 

There was nothing then in the condition 
of the country to call for revolution, or ex- 
cuse a resort to it ; and, short of revolution, 
the only remedy for bad laws is an appeal to 
the votes of the people if the laws are op- 
pressive, or to the Supreme Court if they 
are unconstitutional. Nullification was only 
revolution in disguise. To say it was intend- 
ed or fitted to preserve the Union was to de- 
lude the people. The refusal to obey a law 
would necessarily bring into conflict those 
who refuse to obey and those whose duty it 
is to enforce the laws. To say that a state 
might at pleasure repeal a law of the whole 
Union, not only with safety, but with ad- 
vantage to it, is simply an absurdity. It was 
a speculation of the closet, not a measure of 
practical government. It would involve end- 
less disorder, and end inevitably in war. To 
pass it off on the people as any thing else is 
to cheat them into a snare. 

Holding such opinions as these, and con- 



118 Memoir of 

vinced that tlie welfare and safety of the peo- 
ple were endangered by the madness of then* 
leaders, Mr. Petigru could not fail to be ut- 
terly opposed to nullification, secession, rev- 
olution, in all their phases. He had no con- 
fidence in men who assured the people that 
civil war no longer implied bloodshed, that 
revolutions are made in our enlightened age 
with nothing but rose-water, and that, if old 
adages exist that teach the contrary, these 
adages are no longer true. 

His correspondence is full of striking ex- 
pressions on the subject. In a letter of 1830, 
he says to an old friend of the opposite par- 
ty, " You and I will never dispute much on 
politics, and not at all on any thing else. 
There is less difference between us than be- 
tween some who are on the same side. ISFev- 
ertheless, we differ more than I ever supposed 
we would about any thing. I am devilishly 
puzzled to know whether my friends are 
mad, or I beside myself Let us hojDe we 
shall make some discovery before long which 
will throw some light on the subject, and 
give the people the satisfaction of knowing 



James L. Petigku. 119 

whether they are in their right minds. When 

poor Judge W used to fancy himself a 

teapot, people thought he was hypochondriac; 
but there are in the present day very good 
heads filled with notions that seem to me not 
less strange. That we are treated like slaves, 
that we are slaves in fact, that we are worse 
than slaves and made to go on all fours, are 
stories that seem to me very odd, and make 
me doubt whether I am not under some men- 
tal eclipse, since I can't see what is so plain 
to others. But I am not surprised that the 
people have been persuaded they are ill used 
by the government. Old Hooker says, ' If 
any man will go about to persuade the peo- 
ple that they are badly governed, he will not 
fail to have plenty of followers.' And I am 
inclined to think that the better the polity 
under which men live, the easier it is to per- 
suade them they are cruelly oppressed." 

Again, in another letter, he says, " You re- 
mark that in Beaufort you are all trying to 
become more religious and more state-rights. 
The connection between the two pursuits is 
not so obvious at first sight as it becomes on 



120 Memoir of 

a closer inspection ; for as it is tlie business 
of religion to wean us from the world, the 
object may be well promoted by making the 
world less fit to live in. And, although I do 
not myself subscribe to the plan, I am fain 
to confess many excellent men have thought 
that the making a hell upon earth is a good 
way of being sure of a place in heaven. But 
I am tired of harassing myself with public 
affairs, and wish I could attend more closely 
to my own, and had more of the taste for 
gain — the mora fames auri. But I am afraid 
the bump of acquisitiveness is omitted with 
me unaccountably, and that I might as well 
try for music or dancing as for state-rights 
and faith in Jefferson, which seem admirably 
calculated to serve one in this world, what- 
ever it may do in the next." 

Anxious as he was, notwithstanding his 
opinions, to devote himself to his profession 
and his domestic affairs, he was not able to 
resist the importunity of his personal and po- 
litical friends. There had been a severe con- 
test for the city government. Another was 
pending for the House. " We are about," he 



James L. Petigru. 121 

says, " to begin another canvass, wliicli will 
be more exasperated than the election of the 
last intendant. I am in for it, according to 
my usual luck. They have impressed me for 
a senator — nothing less than impressment. 
I resisted stoutly, and bawled lustily for help, 
but none would help me, so nothing was to 
be done but to take my place in the team. 
* * * If I am elected, I shall see much of 
you in Columbia, for I suppose your election 
is certain, since Beaufort, it is said, is willing 
to go the whole length of Governor Miller's 
course — ballot-box, jury-box, cartouch-box. 
I wish Elliott were here, where his sound- 
ness would be more appreciated than it is 
among your insurging people. Strange, too, 
that Beaufort, the most exposed place in the 
state, should be most eager to rush into dan- 
ger. But many ingenious gentlemen of my 
acquaintance are seriously of opinion that 
the same Yankees whom we now accuse as 
shameless robbers, would desist from hurting 
us as soon as the Union is dissolved ; that 
we should only have to do like an indignant 
gentleman who turns his back on a man he 

P 



122 Memoir of 

dislikes, and lives beside Mm for the rest of 
his life without speaking and without fight- 
ing." 

To fit himself for the place in the team 
which his friends had forced him into, not- 
withstanding his cries for help, Mr. Petigru 
resigned the office of attorney general. It 
proved to be an abandonment of the sub- 
stance for the shadow. He lost his election 
for the Senate. The Nullifiers were too 
strong for him. His wish, however, in refer- 
ence to the office he had resigned was fully 
gratified. He desired Hugh S. Legare to suc- 
ceed, and Legare was made attorney general. 

The shrewd remark on the "insurging" 
people of Beaufort, and their disregard to 
danger, has found a striking commentary 
among them in late events ; but the convic- 
tions of our Port Koyal friends, unhappily, 
led to no adequate measures of precaution 
or defense, and the ruin of their pleasant 
homes has been the consequence. They ei- 
ther lacked faith in their own creed, or their 
practice and professed belief have been sadly 
at variance. 



James L. Petigeu.. 123 

It is not my purjDOse to write a history of 
nullification, but to vindicate only tlie part 
which Mr. Petigru took in relation to it. He 
was not a man to mock his friends, or to sus- 
tain a cause with a show only of assistance. 
He gave the whole force of his mind and 
character to the Union party. He aided them 
with his pen and with numerous popular 
speeches, sustained them by his professional 
learning and ability, and was the soul of 
their councils. 

His party was supported by two papers — 
the City Gazette and the Courier. The first 
was under youthful and able auspices; the 
last, always too wise under Willington's sole 
control to lose moderation in party excite- 
ments, was now giving warm and vigorous 
utterances under a junior editor. To both 
organs Mr. Petigru imparted his active and 
efficient aid. 

His addresses to the people were master- 
pieces of wit and humor. Richard Yeadon, 
his friend and fellow-laborer, spoke of them 
as models of popular eloquence. They were 
poured out in an unbroken torrent of pithy 



124 Memoir of 

reasoning and pointed illustration. He never 
wanted logic or wit, sarcasm, apt allusion, 
apothegm, or story. In one of these speeches, 
at a meeting of the people in a neighboring 
parish, he inculcated strongly the danger that 
the states would incur from powerful foes if 
the Union were dissolved, which alone con- 
stituted their strength and safety. " I see," 
he said, " some broad-shouldered and deep- 
chested men among you, but who of this as- 
sembly would undertake, with all his mus- 
cular power, to strip off at a single pull, with 
both hands, all the hair from the tail of one 
of your horses that stand hitched behind you 
among the trees. It would be impossible for 
the strongest. But the weakest among you, 
if he takes the hairs one by one, might pull 
them all out easily, and leave the stump at 
last as bare as his hand. It is thus that dis- 
union would expose you to be stripped by 
enemies that you now despise." After the 
speech, Yeadon said to the speaker, " Where 
did you get your horse's tail ? Was it an in- 
vention of the moment, produced by the sight 
of the countrymen's horses ?" " Not at all. 



James L. Petigru. 125 

Dick," was tlie answer; "I got tlie horse- 
tail from Plutarch. The tail is classical, my 
friend." 

Mr. Petigru was an active participant and 
director in the party's councils, and never 
failed, while he sustained its cause, to lend 
his influence in j)reserving the endangered 
peace of the country. The peace was in peril 
always from the public meetings of the two 
parties. These meetings were held by the 
Union men at Seyle's Long Koom, between 
Meeting Street and King ; by the Nullifiers 
at the Circus. At these places they were 
addressed by their several leaders. The most 
inflammatory speeches were made night after 
nieht. The rank and file denounced, ridi- 
culed, reviled each other. On one side the 
popular tribunes were Hamilton, Hayne, 
Turnbull, Deas, Pinckney, and many more ; 
on the other, Petigru, Poinsett, Drayton, Hu- 
ger, Yeadon, and their assistants. To one 
side the epithets submissionist, slave, sneak, 
coward, renegade, were freely applied ; on 
the other, with equal civility, the terms Jaco- 
bin, madman, fool, conspirator, were as liber- 



126 Memoir of 

ally bestowed. And so they went on, utter- 
ing phrases of contemptuous scorn with rival 
zeal and earnestness, and equally destitute 
of sense or meaning. 

This reciprocation of complimentary lan- 
guage could not fail to produce its natural 
effect. Where lio-hted torches are thrown 
about at random by many reckless hands, it 
is not easy to escape conflagration. One 
night especially brought the parties to the 
verge of initiating a civil war that would 
have spread through the state with infinite 
disaster. They had met as usual. Some 
were armed ; others excited with liquor, all 
with passion. The customary harangues 
were made, and a large amount of fuel sup- 
plied to their patriotic fires. 

The leaders began to be apprehensive of 
the consequences of their own w^ork. The 
Circus sent a note to the Long Room advis- 
ing, as a prudential measure, that the Union 
men should retire from their meeting by the 
way, not of King Street, but of Meeting 
Street. King Street was the outlet of the 
Circus assembly. The purpose of the mis- 



James L. Petigru. 127 

sive was a friendly one, to avoid a collision 
between tlie two bands. The object met the 
approbation of the Union chiefs. The note 
was read to the meeting, with the hope that 
its suggestion would be followed. Nothing 
of the sort. " What !" it was said, " shall 
they dictate to us by what route we shall 
retire to our homes ? Would they make us 
the slaves they already call us? Who will 
submit ? Not one." 

The way by Meeting Street was wide and 
easy; that by King Street narrow. They 
tore down fences to go out by the King Street 
outlet ; tied slips of white homespun to their 
arms for recognition, and marched down 
King Street, breathing defiance to their ene- 
mies. They met, the Union men going down, 
the Nullifiers going up the street. They 
stood in battle array, ardent for fight, and, 
like Homer's heroes, began the onset by 
abusing each other. 

, But, fortunately, common sense and right 
feeling had not quite deserted the leaders. 
They made attempts to keep the peace, and 
finally agreed among themselves to a sort of 



128 Memoir of 

compromise. Tlie hostile meeting occurred 
just at the point where Hazel comes into 
King Street. It was agreed that the Union 
party should turn into Hazel Street, provided 
that the NuUiiiers did not follow them. But 
the compact was not kept. The insurgent 
party pursued their foes. Brickbats were 
thrown. Petigru, Poinsett, Drayton, were 
struck, but were prudent enough to keep the 
fact from the knowledge of their followers. 
At length the city guard was manoeuvred 
into a position between the belligerent par- 
ties, and they retired to their homes or the 
taverns to recount the exjDloits of the even- 
ing, and prepare new broils for the future. 

The public-spirited gentlemen who com- 
posed the mass of the two parties kept up 
their agreeable interchange of courtesies for 
many months. At their furiously-contested 
election for the intendency of the city, as the 
mayor's office was then called, the candidates 
were James E. Pringle and Henry L. Pinck- 
ney. Pringle, the Union candidate, was vic- 
torious. 

Forthwith Hamilton convened what he 



James L. Petigeu. 129 

called a rally, and prepared liis defeated 
forces for tlie next contest. Tlie next con- 
test was in the choice of members to the 
Legislature. Mr. Petigru was " impressed " 
as he termed it, for the Senate, and was 
obliged to take " his place in the team." His 
opponent was Colonel Richard Cunningham. 
The parties sui3porting them resorted to ev- 
ery device, fair or foul. They bribed with 
money, with promises of office, with liquor 
and riotous living. They had their lock-up 
houses, where voters were imprisoned for 
days before the election, and kept continual- 
ly drunk to secure their votes. Each prison 
had its keeper, responsible for the safe cus- 
tody of his captives. Thousands of dollars 
were contributed by patriotic gentlemen and 
ladies to defray the expenses of these salu- 
tary provisions for the freedom of elections 
and the welfare of the people. The city was 
a model republic for the time being, with no 
shadow of difference between the two par- 
ties in the purity of their proceedings. The 
result was the success of Colonel Cunning- 
ham and the Nullifiers. 

F2 



130 Memoir of 

Hamilton's rally had been tlie grand ma- 
noeuvre of the war, and the Union party was 
finally defeated in South Carolina. It was 
a sad sight then to look upon the long faces 
of certain gentlemen — gentlemen who hun- 
gered and thirsted after office, whose only 
thought was how to secure the spoils, and 
who, in joining the losing party, had unluck- 
ily miscalculated the chances, and missed the 
side they intended to take — the side of suc- 
cess. They vowed to make no more mis- 
takes, and made none. As it was, they were 
careful to play a safe game in the Union 
cause ; they ran no personal risks, and gave 
no money. , 

During this desperate contest, men on ei- 
ther side were not wanting whose voices 
were " still for war," and who scorned to lose 
their time "in dull debate" — brave spirits 
who called for blood, and who refused to be 
comforted, not because their former friends 
in the opposite ranks had abandoned them, 
but because they could not put the erring 
culprits to the sword. But, fortunately for 
the state^ these good-tempered gentlemen 



James L. Petigru. 131 

were not in the ascendant with either party. 
Gentler counsels prevailed, and their success 
was principally due to the cordial relations 
existing between Petigru on the one side, 
and Hamilton on the other. They were the 
chief preservers of the peace of South Caro- 
lina. Others were ready to aid them — men 
as willing as they to labor for the welfare 
and safety of the people, but not enjoying, 
like them, a commanding influence over the 
hearts and minds of their parties. It is not 
too much. to say that if the counsels of other 
leading men on either side had prevailed at 
a certain period in the co'litroversy, a wretch- 
ed civil war of carnage and tears would have 
desolated the state. The two leaders that I 
have named, and their supporters, deserved 
a civic crown for saving the life, not of a cit- 
izen, but of a peo23le. 

The co-operation of Hamilton and Petigru 
in the state, and the compromise at Washing- 
ton urged by Clay and accepted by Calhoun, 
restored peace to South Carolina. The frenzy 
ceased. Planters again took interest in their 
cotton-fields and lawyers in their briefs. The 



132 Memoir of 

feuds subsided after a few years. Nullifiers 
and Union men were found on tlie same tick- 
ets for the Legislature, and tlie danger of rev- 
olution for tlie time being passed away from 
the people. 

Mr. Petigru rejoiced to escape from the 
tribune to the pursuits of his profession, to 
his books, and the enjoyments of social life. 
He detested the dissension and division 
among friends which the controversy had 
enforced. He felt it deeply. In a letter to 
one of his sisters, in June, 1832, he says, 
"Poor Judge Prioleau is despaired of He 
has had a second stroke of palsy. He was 
taken on Monday afternoon, and is speech- 
less, but sensible. It is really very distress- 
ing — one of the best men in the relations of 
domestic life that I ever knew, one whom I 
so much esteemed and have been so intimate 
with, and now he is going to die, and these 
cursed politics have made me almost a stran- 
ger to him." He could not bnt abhor the 
disputes producing such evils, and springing, 
as he believed, from no substantial causes, 
but from the ambition of politicians North 



JaxMES L. Petigku. 133 

and South, and the reckless lust of power 
and office. He valued office freely given by 
the people, but he hated the office that vio- 
lence bestowed. 

In the quiet produced by the compromise, 
the old discussions, once so vehement, died 
away, or reappeared in a form that excited 
amusement rather than anger. The amuse- 
ment came often from the court-house. It 
was a part of Mr. Petigru's character never 
to desert a friend — to be always ready to 
defend and assist one who had done his duty 
faithfully under a common flag. If an old 
Union man got into a scrape, his former 
leader was never backward to extend to him 
a hand of encouragement or assistance. 

It was in this way that he gave his pro- 
fessional aid some time afterward to an old 
Union man in the case of the State versits 
James Clark. It was imputed to Clark that 
he was of negro blood. Mr. Petigru defend- 
ed his claims to citizenship and political 
rights. After one or two witnesses had been 
heard on the part of the state. Captain Rear- 
den, a portly man, with a broad, good-hu- 



134 Memoir of 

mored face, was placed on tlie stand. Tlie 
attorney general, Baily, inquired wlietlier tlie 
witness knew James Clark. '' Certainly " 
he replied ; " know him well." " Is he a 
white man V ^' No." " Do you know his 
mother V " Yes." " What is she, white or 
negro ?" " Nigger." And the examination 
ended on the part of the state. Mr. Petigru 
then commenced the cross-examination in his 
usual deliberate fashion. " Captain Rear- 
den, I am told that you have the honor to 
fill a number of important offices in the serv- 
ice of the state." " Don't know what you 
mean, Mr. Petigru." " Well, then, to be more 
definite, you hold the commission of captain 
of a comj^any in the militia of South Caro- 
lina?" "Yes, sir; held it ever since I was 
twenty-one." " Has Jim Clark ever turned 
out in the ranks under your command?" 
" Always, sir ; never missed ; regular as any 
body." " Very well. You are one of the 
managers of election also, I believe, Captain 
Rearden ?" " Just so ; always am ; they will 
appoint me at Columbia all I can do." 
" Have you ever, while serving as manager, 



James L. Petigeu. 135 

received Jim Clark's vote at the polls?" 
" Certainly, sir ; lie always votes punctual, 
just like he musters ; never fails." " That v^ill 
do," said Petigru ; ^' I have nothing more to 
ask." " But, sir," the captain replied, hur- 
riedly, suspecting something amiss — "stop, 
sir ; maybe you don't understand ; let me ex- 
plain, sir. In our parish every body musters 
and every body votes except the field-hands. 
That is the reason, sir, the Union party, you 
know, always beat us at elections." The ex- 
planation was made with perfect simplicity. 
The captain merely assigned the mode in 
which his party was defeated, without sus- 
pecting apparently that there was any thing 
amiss in it. It was the a23proved custom of 
his parish, against Avhich he had no notion of 
protesting, but was anxious only that Mr. 
Petigru should understand the nature and 
extent of their privileges. 

The restless spirit which had threatened 
to overthrow the republic took a new direc- 
tion, and displayed itself in another form. 
A rage for speculating in land sprung 
up and extended over the whole country. 



136 Memoie of 

Men^ women, and children, clergy and laity, 
plunged into the current flowing with prom- 
ises of universal wealth. The mania raged 
for a year or two, until the recurrence of a 
commercial crisis, with its customary thun- 
ders and lightnings, purified the atmos23here, 
and left all parties astonished, dismayed, and 
ruined. 

Mr. Petigru did not escajDe the general 
calamity. He had taken no active part in 
the delusion, but he had lent himself to the 
partnership of sanguine friends who thought 
they held the purse-strings of fortune — men 
who prefer to drink, as Horace tells us, from 
a great river rather than a humble spring, 
and who are snatched away in consequence, 
and buried in the headlong stream. 

Some years previous to this period Mr. 
Petigru had engaged in the ordinary and 
legitimate proceeding of investing his pro- 
fessional i^rofits in a plantation and negroes. 
It was the approved Carolina custom in clos- 
ing every kind of career. 'No matter how 
one might begin, as lawyer, physician, clergy- 
man, mechanic, or merchant, he ended, if pros- 



James L. Petigru. 137 

perous, as proprietor of a rice or cotton ]3lan- 
tation. It was tlie condition that came near- 
est to the shadow of the colonial aristocracy 
which yet remained. 

Mr. Petigru prepared to do what all the 
world was doing. His friends favored and 
urged the undertaking for another reason. 
They wished to get him in debt for part of 
the purchase-money. His generosity was so 
profuse as to call for restraint, and it was 
hoped in. this way to circumscribe its limits. 
Nothing else could. The goddess Prudence 
exercised no control over his mode of man- 
aging his affairs. The sterner divinity, Ne- 
cessity, might be more imperiofis and success- 
ful. He could never be got to cease giving 
without measure except to provide for a just 
debt, and his friends wished to see him in 
debt. But the old spirit took another form 
only, and merely added a fresh class to its 
list of beneficiaries. 

The negroes on the plantation became 
objects of his liberality. They had nev^ 
houses with brick chimneys provided for 
them. They were abundantly furnished with 



138 Memoir of 

clotlies, slices, food, and physic. Pigs were 
permitted to run about where they never 
ran before, and, like the French under Henry 
the Fourth, the slaves of the new proprietor 
could have had, in each family, a fowl in the 
23ot every Sunday of the year, if they had 
not chosen to sell their poultry in the neigh- 
boring city for articles of more questionable 
value, l3ut which they greatly jDreferred. The 
slaves became sleek, fat, and projDrietors in 
their way, and the master took jDleasure in 
seeing the result of his rule. 

But, after all their emoluments, with the 
necessary plantation expenses, had been fair- 
ly deducted from the harvest returns, the 
balance was not encouraging, even when the 
crops were good. After a few years of grow- 
ing interest in this mode of life, the catas- 
trophe that afflicted the country swept aAvay 
the estate. When it began to assume the 
aspect of a pleasant winter residence to his 
family, it was sold to meet the losses that 
had been brought about by the magnificent 
speculations of his friends in southwestern 
lands. The plantation was agreeably situ- 



James L. Petioeu. 139 

ated on the south bank of the river, below 
Savannah, where the land, of considerable 
height, takes a semicircular sweep from the 
city eastward, leaving the broad and level 
rice-fields subject to overflow between the 
high land and the stream. The property 
passed from the luckless proprietors into the 
possession of Mr. Higham, of Charleston, and 
ceased to excite the cares or benevolence of 
its former owner. 

But this was not all the evil that flowed 
from the overthrow of sanguine or imprudent 
speculations. The sacrifice of the estate on 
Savannah River was not enough to meet the 
owner's losses. A large debt remained. It 
was a terrible calamity to one no longer 
young, with many claimants on his love and 
help. Yet it was encountered with manly 
energy, and, after years of unwearied exer- 
tion, the debt was paid. It required toil 
which few could have borne, and which none 
but men of high honor would have under- 
taken to perform. His labors were various 
and widely diffused, sometimes in Columbia, 
sometimes in Milledgeville, in Washington, 



140 Memoir of 

in Cincinnati, wherever professional engage- 
ments called Mm. Through severe cold in 
winter and heat in summer, he toiled on, with 
unflinching will and iron constitution, until 
he touched the goal that he had resolved to 
reach or ^Derish in the attempt — he paid ev- 
ery thing. He was more happy in this than 
Sir Walter Scott, who devoted his life to the 
same object with a similar spirit, but devoted 
it in vain. 

In this hard pinch of his fortunes steadfast 
friends were ready to stand by him — to 
pledge themselves and risk their fortunes in 
his aid. It is only a noble nature that is 
able to excite deej) sympathy and devoted 
attachment among friends and associates. 
One of these, an old neighbor in the city, 
prompt at a moment's notice in venturing 
his whole property to stay the impending 
ruin, thought it a duty first to consult with 
another person — the j)artner of his household 
and life, and deeply interested, like himself, 
in the risk and the result. Her reply was, 
without an instant's hesitation, " Go on ; sus- 
tain the man whom you had taken to your 



James L. Petigeu. 141 

bosom as a friend, and who is worthy to be 
so ; encounter any risk ; I am ready to join 
you in meeting the consequences, whatever 
they may be." These are the acts and na- 
tures that disarm the sarcasm of the French 
philosopher's sneering maxims, and redeem 
our race from his sarcastic scorn. 

It may enable us to form some conception 
of the laborious and harassing occupations 
that eno-ao-ed Mr. Petio-ru's attention in the 
struggle to restore his fortunes if we advert 
to one case alone, the claim of Trezevant on 
the State of Georgia, which he urged on the 
Legislature at Milledgeville, session after ses- 
sion, for many years. Legislatures are sus- 
picious always of demands on the public 
purse ; they are prone to procrastinate ; they 
are uncertain in coming to a conclusion, and 
are liable to change. They are not remark- 
able for w^isdom, notwithstanding the convic- 
tions they cherish on that interesting subject 
in their own behalf. It was required of him 
that he should persevere under delay and re- 
jection; exercise patience when pressed by 
unreasonable opposition; be courteous and 



142 Memoie of 

conciliating in return for rudeness, and wear 
a cheerful and confident air, notwithstanding 
discouragements of every kind. 

This he did, year after year, for many 
years, and at last obtained, by persistent so- 
licitation, as a favor, what he might justly 
have demanded as a right. It was a hard 
task for a temper impatient of wrong, of the 
dullness of dunces, and the devices of dema- 
gogues ; but the importance of the end in 
view enabled him to exercise the forbearance 
that secured success. 

It might have changed the current of his 
fortunes, and removed him from the influ- 
ences which led to their embarrassment and 
the consequences if he had been raised to 
the bench of the Supreme Court of the Unit- 
ed States on the death of Justice Johnson, 
of South Carolina. Mr. Petigru was, beyond 
all doubt, the fittest man in all respects to 
fill the vacant place. But when does the 
political ruler appoint the fittest man, or con- 
sult the common weal rather than the inter- 
ests of party ? The State of South Carolina 
would give nothing to Jackson's dynasty ; 



James L. Petigeu. 143 

Georgia was loyal and zealous to do his will, 
and a Georgia member of Congress, with 
strong claims of a political nature only, was 
placed on the vacant seat by the side of 
Marshall and Story. The appointment of 
Petigru would have added fresh laurels to a 
court already illustrious for great ability, 
learning, and virtue. 

It was fortunate for Mr. Petigru's purpose 
of restoring his fortunes, so seriously injured 
in the convulsions produced by inordinate 
speculation in 1837, that the repose of the 
country continued unbroken for many years. 
The restless spirit of South Carolina was 
again aroused, it is true, in 1850, under the 
counsels of Governor Seabrook, but nothing 
serious ensued. The cry for change raised 
by the politicians was not sustained by the 
people. They rejected the project that a 
single state should abandon the Confederacy. 
They were not quite prepared for this ex- 
tremest remedy of the Constitution, and the 
peace of the country was preserved for ten 
years more. 

But it is impossible for states with inde- 



144 Memoie of 

pendent governments to remain at peace per- 
manently imder any circumstances, however 
fortunate. No identity of race, of language, 
of interest, is sufficient to preserve their unity 
or co-operation. The several peoples of an- 
cient Greece, in a territory hardly greater 
than South Carolina, divided into states no 
larger than an ordinary American county, 
speaking the same tongue, of the same lin- 
eage, bound together by common games, ora- 
cles, and councils, were nevertheless perpet- 
ually at war with each other. It is usual to 
ascribe these endless dissensions among coun- 
tries or communities to reasons of state, or 
natural developments of growing power. The 
true and only causes are ambition, pride, van 
ity, hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness 
These passions creep into the hearts of com 
munities, and curse their councils. They nev 
er fail to find any where ingenious or plausi 
ble reasons for revolution. The first revolt 
er discovered ample causes in heaven itself 
He is the prototype of his tribe. If the nar 
I'ative of his deeds be divinely inspired, it is 
a lesson and warning from heaven \ if it be 



James L. Petigeu. 145 

a myth, as some are disposed to think it, it is 
the embodied common sense of mankind, and 
sufficiently authoritative. 

Yet, clear and conclusive as the lesson 
seems, it has no effect. Christianity exer- 
cises no restraining influence. It may be 
doubted whether any vv^ar or revolution was 
ever arrested or delayed by religious consid- 
erations. The positive precept, "Let every 
soul be subject to the powers that be, for the 
powers that be are ordained of God," seems 
conclusive enough, but it is an unmeaning 
phrase. The clergy are foremost always with 
an easy explanation, showing that any thing 
else but submission to authority and law is 
intended by the apostle. The most solemn 
compact between states is assailed by ambi- 
tion and pride, and perishes "as flax that 
falls asunder by the touch of fire," and no 
pulpit censures, or protests, or dissuades. 
The case is curious and amusing, as well as 
deplorable, in Christian churches. 

And so it has been with us, and so it will 
continue to be. We flatter ourselves that 
our Southern Confederacy will present an 

a 



146 Memoir of 

example of truer amity, and closer and more 
lasting union. There is no just cause for the 
expectation ; no warrant in history, reason, or 
our own experience. We think slavery will 
be a bond of union. Were not Sparta, 
Athens, Thebes, slaveholders, and constant 
and deadly enemies nevertheless? Will 
there be any lack among us of rapacious, un- 
principled demagogues? Have we known 
the time when there have been no eager traf- 
fickers among us for power and office ? In a 
word, is there no pride, vanity, or ambition 
in the Southern States ? If there is not, they 
will be safe from dissension, but not other- 
wise. 

To induce the simple people to plunge into 
the volcanic fires of revolution and war, they 
were told that the act of dissolution would 
produce no opposition of a serious nature ; 
that not a drop of blood would be spilled ; 
that no man's flocks, or herds, or negroes, or 
houses, or lands would be plundered or de- 
stroyed ; that unbroken prosperity would 
follow the ordinance of secession; that cot- 
ton would control all Europe, and secure 



James L. Petigru. 147 

open ports and boundless commerce witli the 
whole world for the Southern States. 

To such views Mr. Petigru was unaltera- 
bly opposed. He thought these schemes and 
opinions delusive. He was convinced that 
war, anarchy, military despotism, would in- 
evitably follow a dissolution of the Union ; 
that secession would impart to the Abolition 
party a power over slavery that nothing else 
could give them — a power to make war on 
Southern institutions, to proclaim freedom to 
the negro, to invoke and command the sym- 
pathy and aid of the whole world in carry- 
ing on a crusade on the Southern States. 
This was the long-sought purpose of the 
Abolitionists, which nothing but a broken 
confederation could enable them to reach. 
Secession threw into the abolition service 
the whole military power of the North. It 
forced into their ranks all parties of every 
description. Democrat as well as Republican. 
It secured to Seward's agents in Europe the 
ear of all its governments, who were prepared 
to regard Lincoln's proclamation of liberty to 
the negro as a sublime, act of benevolence 
and wisdom. 



148 Me.moie of 

Mr. Petigru saw that bankruptcy would 
follow war; tliat public fraud would find 
advocates in Richmond as well as in Wash- 
ington. He opposed these schemes of dis- 
order which have desolated the South. Their 
projectors professed to protect her from pos- 
sible evils, and involved her in present and 
terrible disasters. The people were discon- 
tented at seeing rats infesting the granaries ^ 
of Southern industry, and were urged to set 
fire to the four corners of every Southern 
barn to get rid of the vermin. They were 
alarmed at attacks on slavery by such men 
as John Brown and his banditti, and pro- 
posed, as a remedy, to rush into war with the 
armed hordes of the whole world. For a 
bare future contingency they proposed to en- 
counter an enormous immediate evil. 

Mr. Petigru looked with horror on a delib- 
erate plunge into civil war and its crimes, for 
which he could see no sufficient cause. How 
could there be a sufficient cause? There 
was none, he thought, in the election of Lin- 
coln. It was the result of many influences 
and accidents — the feebleness of Buchanan's 



James L. Petigru. 149 

administration, tlie divisions of the Demo- 
cratic party, the insubordination of one or 
two ambitious leaders in the North, the eager 
aspirations of others in the South — these 
causes produced the defeat of the Democratic ■ 
party. It was well known that the Repub- 
lican nominee had been elected by a minor- 
ity ; his position was unstable. The next 
general election would overturn his party. 
In the mean time, their conscious weakness 
would compel them to conciliate. Any at- 
tempt on their part to assail the chartered 
rights of states was as improbable as an at- 
tack on the government of France or En- 
gland. Nothing was needed but a little pa- 
tience, without which no human institutions 
can go on. Opiniomim commenta delet dies 
— time destroys the falsehoods of opinion, 
and the wise statesman waits for the salutary 
influences of time. 

To assume that the South had reached a 
position when it became necessary, for a pos- 
sible distant evil, to encounter the chances 
of a war, with all the world against her, was 
to insist that she should stake her existence 



150 Memoie of 

on a remote contingency merely. He saw in 
all this, not wisdom, but the mere madness 
of ambition and wounded vanity, the repeti- 
tion of what had deluded mankind since their 
creation, and destroyed states and empires 
without end. It was only another example 
of aspiring spirits devising plausible reasons 
for disorder that they might rule the tem- 
pest of their own contriving. 

The people understood and appreciated 
Mr. Petigru. They elected him, during the 
tumult and dissension of secession, to the 
most important trust and the largest salary 
in their gift. He was chosen in the I^egis- 
lature to codify the state laws — to reduce 
them to exactness, precision, and perspicuity. 
Notwithstanding his irony and satire, some- 
times playful, sometimes cutting enough, they 
continued to elect him till the work was 
complete. His freedom of sjDeech never shook 
the confidence of the people for a moment, 
nor was their favor able to stop or restrain 
the freedom he was accustomed to exercise. 
He sold his time, but not his liberty to form 
opinions on public affairs and express them 



James L. Petigru. 151 

freely. He never shifted liis sails to cateli 
the popular breath. I am not sure that an- 
other example can be found in the country 
of a man absolutely opposed to the creed of 
^the people, and elected by them nevertheless 
to important and lucrative positions. It says 
much for the man's ability and character, 
and something, too, for the magnanimity and 
judgment of the people. Very rarely has a 
state pursued so enlightened and generous a 

course. 

The important work intrusted by the Leg- 
islature to Mr. Petigru was completed dur- 
ing the session of 1862. To expedite the 
completion of the code, Mr. Petigru had made 
his residence in Summerville, about twenty 
miles from the city. He was at this time 
without a home. His house in Broad Street 
had been burned in the great fire of Decem- 
ber, 1861, which swept over Charleston, from 
river to river, with immense destruction. His 
house on Sullivan's Island was pulled down 
to make room for one of the island forts. 
The air of Summerville is pleasant, and had 
been beneficial to Mrs. Petigru. It lies on 



152 Memoir of 

the railroad, and is of easy access, wliile re- 
moved from the distractions of the town. 
He fixed his abode in Summer ville, and de- 
termined to build a house, and make it his 
permanent residence, if circumstances would 
permit. The aid of two or three assistants, 
authorized by law, and the help of a young 
friend, who oifered her services to him in his 
writing at the close of his work, enabled him 
to finish, in this quiet retreat from city in- 
terruj)tions, the contribution required by the 
state, and due, it has been said, by every man, 
to his profession in some form or other. His 
code is not only a com23ilation of the laws, 
but embraces such changes in their language 
as may be necessary to impart sufficient 
clearness and precision. The work, when 
completed, he wished to present, with an ad- 
dress, to the Legislature, and afterward to 
commissioners appointed to receive it at a 
private house. But failing health prevented 
both attempts, and his life was prolonged 
but a little way beyond this last important 
effort of his ability and perseverance. 

It would prove, from this toilsome work 



James L. Petigru. 153 

alone, to be a very imperfect account of a 
lawyer in large practice that should not say 
something more of his professional character. 
The originality and breadth of his liberal 
mode of dealing with his clients of certain 
classes I have already adverted to. His gen- 
erosity was not confined to his personal 
friends, nor to those who needed his serv- 
ices and could illy afford to pay for them, 
nor to others who had once met his early ef- 
forts to advance in life with encourao-ement 
and kindness. The extent of his gratuitous 
services was greater than this. Not only in- 
dividuals, but corporations received aid from 
him without being permitted to pay for them. 
These corporate bodies are said to have no 
souls, and were treated as liberally by him 
as though they had. One of them, the Blue 
Eidge Railroad, was involved in many troub- 
les. It had been fleeced by shar23ers who 
regarded public societies as natural objects 
of common plunder. The company had lit- 
erally fallen among thieves. It was pursued, 
in various courts of different states^or large 
sums never earned by the claimants. 

G2 



154 Memoir of 

Mr. Petigru defended the injured party 
with indefatigable zeal and great success. 
The president of the company presented a 
check for a large amount, with a regret that 
the sum offered was not larger. The check 
was returned. It was pressed, but in vain. 
The defendants had been wi^onged, and that 
was enough to command the sympathy and 
services of their counsel. He was immova- 
ble in refusing a fee. He had subscribed to 
shares in the railroad. Installments were 
uncalled for and unpaid. It was proposed 
by the company to give him credit for the 
whole amount. The new proposition was 
rejected like the former, and a check was pre- 
sented by the counsel to the company for the 
unpaid installments. And this came from 
one not overflowing with money, and having 
many 23ur]3oses for all he could command. 
He was invincible, on all such occasions, at 
every attempt that would induce him to 
change his opinions or practice. He was as 
resolute to reject provoking gold, in certain 
cases, as^other men are ready and eager to 
receive it. To refuse a fee of a thousand 



James L. Petigru. 155 

dollars as too little for important services we 
can easily understand, but to insist on re- 
ceiving nothing, to render service with no 
pay at all, is a mode of doing business some- 
what at variance with ordinary bar experi- 
ence. Its members will not imitate it uni- 
versally, and corporate bodies need not fear 
to see their fees returned upon their hands as 
often as they desire to pay them. 

In every case where the unprotected had 
fallen victims to the power and influence of 
society, and had been dealt with by Judge 
Lynch after his usual fashion, the sufferers 
never failed to receive the ready and resolute 
protection of Mr. Petigru's legal abilities. A 
stranger, by the name of Smalley, was one of 
these. He was a Northern man, and was 
engaged in cutting timber near Ashepoo. 
Strong suspicions got abroad that he had 
large abolition proclivities. He was accused 
of improper acts and words, and certain gen- 
tlemen of wealth and station in the neigh 
borhood seized the man, tied and whipped 
him, with little regard to any judge but 
Judge Lynch. It was an outrage that roused 



156 Memoir of 

at once the sympathy of Mr. Petigru and his 
strong sense of justice. He carried the case 
through the courts, with such appeals to 
truth and right as to overcome the preju- 
dices which prevailed in the state, and had 
made possible such acts of disgraceful vio- 
lence. The eloquence of the advocate vindi- 
cated the rights of the victim, and maintained 
the dignity of order and law. 

It was not the custom of Mr. Petigru to 
oppress and browbeat those called on to give 
evidence in court. The common and dis- 
graceful custom of the bar is to bully the 
witness, and to insinuate falsehood in an op. 
posing party. If Mr. Petigru was severe in 
sifting testimony, it was only when he sus- 
pected unfairness in the evidence. His skill 
was remarkable in cross-examinations. He 
was dexterous especially in eliciting truth 
where truth indeed was intended, but the 
witness was nevertheless unconsciously draw- 
ing his inferences from hearsay only, and not 
from direct information. 

An example of this kind was exhibited in 
an interesting case where a respectable wom- 



James L. Petigru. 157 

an was represented in court as carrying about 
her that unpardonable sin — a drop of black 
blood in her veins. She was of French de- 
scent, and a countryman was called upon to 
give evidence in the case and confirm the 
charge. His belief was fixed, but it was 
founded on rumors, not on personal knowl- 
edge. The witness was none the less posi- 
tive on that account. He had no doubt on 
the subject. Even in a church, he said, 
frequented by the lady asserted to be of 
doubtful blood, she was not permitted to 
sit in pews occupied by whites, but restrict- 
ed to the space set ajDart for other classes. 
How could the jury doubt after that ? But, 
before the inference is accepted, the fact, as 
asserted by the witness, must be admitted to 
be true. Was he stating what he knew? 
Had he repeated a report, not described a 
scene he had witnessed? It was soon de- 
termined by the counsel when cross-examin- 
ation began. Mr. Petigru stood for a mo- 
ment with a serious air, and his left hand 
stroking his chin, when suddenly he said to 
the witness, " Mr. C , have you ever been 



158 Memoir of 

at churcli?" Tlie witness was astomslied 
and uneasy. " Sir," lie replied, " tliat is not 
a proper question. I will not answer that 
question." But it was urged that he should 
answer, and an appeal was made to the Bench. 
The judge very blandly but decidedly de- 
termined that the question was a proper one, 
and must be answered. The witness resist- 
ed still. He threw himself on the judge's 
favorable consideration. He said he was in 
a serious dilemma ; for if he replied to the 
question that he was never at church, he 
would become odious in the eyes of his coun- 
trymen as an atheist and despiser of relig- 
ious rites ; if, he added, I answer that I have 
been at church, then, on the other hand, I 
shall say what is not true. His examiner 
assured him that no farther reply was neces- 
sary. It is the lot of all lawyers in these 
forensic attacks to meet with embarrassing 
retorts. It was not otherwise with Mr. Peti- 
gru, and . an apt or shrewd question some- 
times formed the witness's reply to the as- 
saults on his testimony, delighting the bar 
and the idlers who frequent a court as they 
would a cock-pit or bear-garden. 



James L. Petigru. 159 

The deptli and extent of Mr. Petigm's at- 
tainments in every department of legal sci- 
ence were especially manifested by tliat class 
of causes which involve the first principles 
of jurisprudence, and perplex unlearned coun- 
sel and judges. The subtlety and compre- 
hensiveness of his mind suffered nothing to 
escape him. His reading was great among 
authorities where ordinary lawyers are least 
accustomed to look, and the foundations of 
their science are most certainly found. In 
discussing one of these searching questions 
on the limits and principles of law, he has 
been described by a colleague at the bar- 
meeting that followed his death as having 
carried to the court a cart-load of law author- 
ities. The fact is the more significant, as the 
advocate producing them was never ostenta- 
tious of his books or reading. 

In other cases of a different nature, his as- 
sociates were struck with the astuteness and 
judgment by which he selected the true 
ground of safety and success, when there was 
required, not so much a familiar acquaint- 
ance with law principles, as a ready insight 



160 Memoir of 

into tlie motives of excited minds, and a nice 
acquaintance witli the comparative weight 
and value of facts and their several bear- 
ings. 

Where questions involved morals with 
law, he sej)arated truth and right with un- 
deviating promptitude. Good and wise men, 
who had fallen into errors without being 
able to detect them, have wondered to see 
how surely the unfailing finger j)ointed them 
out. The parties were surprised at not per- 
ceiving the difficulty before. He was the 
friend as well as lawyer of his client, and 
never hesitated to present the obligations of 
honor to one who might be too angry to rec- 
ognize their claim. He was a chancellor of 
morals, a keeper of conscience for those who 
came within his influence, and they never 
found him unfaithful in his trust. 

It was my purpose to give the reader at 
some length a few of the most important 
cases that illustrate the various powers of 
Mr. Petigru's mind. But to the lawyer these 
cases are accessible in the Re2:)orts of Law 
and Equity, and to the general reader the}^ 



James L. Petigeu. 161 

would not be acceptable. I Lave been con- 
tent, therefore, with adverting to the classes 
of cases which require in conducting them 
the lawyer's highest attainments, and with 
alluding to the moral power of the great 
jurist who never failed to preserve his client 
in the path of truth and right. 

Mr. Petigru was remarkable for liberality 
to the young members of the bar. He was 
always ready to assist and advise, and some- 
times supported his advice by an appeal to 
his experience. On a young friend, to whom 
he was recommending certain virtues to pro- 
mote his practice, he enforced the virtue of 
caution in giving opinions by referring once 
to an adventure of his own. He was applied 
to by a client in Coosawhatchie for advice in 
a case. " Can I recover a claim V was asked. 
The nature of it was explained, and the coun- 
sel replied immediately that the claim was 
certain. The case was carried into court. It 
was a summary process, and the judge forth- 
with decided against the claim. To the anx- 
ious inquiries of the client, Mr. Petigru re- 
plied that he would appeal ; that the judge 



162 Memoir of 

knew nothing of the matter. The appeal 
was argued in Charleston, and the decision 
confirmed. Mr. Petigru, in telling the story 
to his young friend, went on to say he was 
so much mortified at the event that, without 
explaining the result to his luckless client, he 
paid to him the sum in dispute out of his 
own pockets, though his pockets were nearly 
empty. The grateful receiver promised to 
bring similar claims of himself or a neigh- 
bor. 

Mr. Petigru's active aid was readily im- 
parted to any young or less fortunate ad- 
venturer at the bar. He was always encour- 
aging to the newly-admitted attorney, and 
when Harper returned from Missouri to re- 
assume his long discontinued practice in 
Carolina, and when Hugh S. Legare, in his 
somewhat desultory course, was looking for 
progress in Charleston, Mr. Petigru's zeal 
never relaxed in opening the way, as far as 
he was able, to the advancement of both. It 
added to his toils. They were not for him- 
self only. He was indefatigable, and noth- 
ing but a constitution as vigorous as his 



James L. Petigru. 163 

mind could have enabled him to sustain so 
many and varied labors. 

To lighten the pressure of these pursuits, 
Mr. Petigru was accustomed to spend a month 
or two annually at Badwell, the family resi- 
dence. It was not for relaxation only, but 
affection. The place was, of late years, the 
home of Mrs. North, and was visited, from 
time to time, by various branches of the fam- 
ily. The ^rm was healthy and pleasant, 
and possessed of many natural beauties. To 
increase them was the favorite purpose of 
Mr. Petigru. He strove to enlarge its limits 
by the purchase of other tracts of adjoining 
land. He was a liberal bidder, with a high 
idea of the value of Abbeville soil. He was 
writing, on one occasion, to offer ten thousand 
dollars for what, by the interference of a 
friend, he easily obtained for three. He de- 
voted not only money, but many hours often 
of personal hard labor, for the improvement 
of the premises, in sinking wells, in planting 
trees, in adorning the family burial-place, in 
smoothing roads, in completing an avenue. 
He was indefatigable so long as his visit con- 



164 Memo IE of 

tinued. He was never content with seeing 
others work, but took an active part him- 
self. 

He was a lover of trees and shrubbery. 
In Charleston he purchased a lot in front of 
his office, in St. Michael's Alley, and convert- 
ed the ground into a garden. It was orna- 
mented with many plants of variety and 
beauty. At Badwell his trees were a pas- 
sion. He regarded the injury of them as an 
outrage not easily pardoned. The last letter 
I received from him was in July, 1860, in 
which, writing from Badwell, he c.omplains 
of some atrocious mutilations inflicted on 
certain overcup oaks, the delight of his eyes, 
by some vile African, who had dismembered 
the oaks to promote the growth of a negro 
patch of corn and pumjDkins. He declares, 
in the language of some Latin author, that 
something monstrous is always produced by 
unhappy Africa. What rendered the out- 
rasce more intolerable was that he attached 
the names of his friends to his trees, and was 
forming of them a sort of arboraceous gallery 
of portraits. This tree was Allston, that one 



James L. Petigru. 165 

Hueer : and tlie Hack miscreant, with an axe 
as an instrument, had been operating on the 
limbs of his friends, and amputating their 
arms ahnost before his eyes. It was at this 
time that he sent his servant Hamlet from 
Abbeville to the city, to obtain, among other 
necessaries, a cork oak, propagated from Span- 
ish acorns, which I had promised to give 
him. It was a hot, dry week in July, that 
scorched every thing growing, but he tram- 
pled on impossibilities in pursuing an addi- 
tion to his avenue. In a long correspond- 
ence, one of many years, with his sister, Mrs. 
North, hardly a letter omits an earnest in- 
quiry in relation to his trees, or the growth 
and extension of the avenue. 

He was particular in his attention to the 
family burying-ground. It was a part of his 
nature to reverence the memory of departed 
friends. He never omitted to attend a fu- 
neral. The last one at which I saw him was 
the funeral at Grace Church, in Wentworth 
Street, of Mr. William Elliott, who died in 
Charleston. It was a few weeks only be- 
fore his own death, when his health had been 



166 Memoir of 

for some time failing, and lie tottered in Ms 
walk. In Abbeville lie ornamented the Bad- 
well burying-place. To liis grandfather, the 
French pastor, he erected a monument, in- 
scribing the four sides with an epitaph in 
Latin, for which he had consulted the critical 
taste of Hugh S. Legare. The offerings in 
dignity were proportioned to that of the de- 
ceased. Those to others were more simple. 
None were neglected. The humble slave 
who had been attentive to his duties was 
remembered. To one the master had been 
accustomed to give an annuity in silver, 
which the receiver especially valued, and 
when the old man died his grave was marked 
by a stone to preserve his name. Mr. Peti- 
gru was desirous to consecrate the family 
ground by a chapel erected near the spot, 
and a school-house built for the benefit of 
the poor. His family co-operated with him 
in seeking these objects, but he did not live, 
I believe, to complete them. 

His solicitudes for the preservation of the 
family home in some one of the family are 
strikingly indicated by his last will. He 



James L. Petigku. 167 

appeals solemnly to God for his own con- 
scientious desire to do right, fixes the prop- 
erty in the possession of Mrs. North for her 
life, desires that some one of his relatives 
should subsequently purchase it, and ex- 
presses the anxious wish that his plan should 
not be defeated by disregard to his last wish. 
His final visit to Badwell was in Septem- 
ber, 1862, when his health seemed good, his 
memory sound, and his intellect vigorous 
as before. Time had not yet touched his 
head, and his long, abundant black hair be- 
trayed no gray traces of age. I met him on 
the Green^dlle cars ; and when he turned off 
at Cokesbury, he proposed that I should go 
with him, and promised to show me all Ab- 
beville — a sight which he judged a sufficient 
reward for any trouble of the traveler. It 
was not his lot to die in the home of his 
boyhood. We may readily suppose that it 
would have been the chosen place for the 
last scene, the final retreat from the cares and 
troubles of the world. 

"And as the hare, whom hounds and horns pursue, 
Turns to the spot from which at first he flew," 



168 Memoie of 

so the worn member of the bar, over three- 
score years and ten, might be expected to re- 
treat from the contentions of the court with 
the young and aspiring, and seek gladly the 
quiet resting-place of his early home. But it 
was his fortune to die in harness. Illness 
was hardly able to divorce him from his 
books. A stern necessity or imperative duty 
kept them in his hands. I saw him busy 
with them at his office the last day but one 
on which he was seen there, and he said to 
me, but not cheerfully, " You see I can still 
earn a living at my trade." His legs were 
then swelled and his days numbered. After 
the next day he repaired no more to St. 
Michael's Alley, the scene for forty years of 
labors that often consumed continuously his 
days and nights. 

He died in Charleston, at the house of his 
old friend, Judge King, who preceded him to 
the grave a few months only. The eldest 
son of the deceased judge, MacMillan King, 
watched over the last moments of his father's 
friend with affectionate solicitude. The sick 
was surrounded with many anxious relatives„ 



James L. Petigru. 169 

He bore severe suffering witli fortitude, ex- 
pressed tlie liopes and aspirations of a Chris- 
tian, and passed away, on tlie 9tli of March, 
1863, from a life of much success, great dis- 
tinction, and many anxieties and cares. He 
was buried in St. Michael's Yard, near his 
son Daniel, who died a few months before 
him. 

The funeral of Mr. Petigini moved the 
whole city. Eich and poor, white and black, 
attended, with faces expressing the convic- 
tion that a great man had departed from the 
field of his usefulness. Those who most need- 
ed one seemed to feel they had lost a ready 
friend of influence and power. At a meet- 
ing of the bar in honor of the dead, eloquent 
addresses were delivered of unusual excel- 
lence. They were inspired by the object, 
and carefully prepared by the speakers. 
The chief justice, notwithstanding his feeble 
state of health, added another affectionate 
tribute to his old friend, and the press was 
not regardless of the attentions due to the 
illustrious dead. Among the many offerings 
produced by the event, a letter was drawn 

H 



170 Memoir of 

ft'om a neiglibor, of more than forty years' 
standing, wlio appreciates virtue and talent 
every where, and knew thoroughly the heart 
and min4 of the friend over whose death-bed 
he had lingered a few days before. The let- 
ter is an expressive and vigorous portrait of 
one for whom time, from day to day for many 
years, had increased his love and esteem. It 
is addressed to a near relative : 

"Longwood, March 15th, 1863. 

" My dear Ben, — Mr. William Harleston 
very kindly promised to bring my letters 
and papers with him to your house to-day ; 
and if he has done so, I would thank you to 
send them by the bearer. 

"I reached the only home I have left on 
Saturday evening, exhausted in body and de- 
pressed in spirits. Petigru's illness and un- 
measured sufferings put what strength I had 
in severe requisition, and his death admon- 
ishes me of a heavy bereavement. The 
blows come in such quick succession that 
there is hardly ^ twilight enough to separate 
the darkness of one from the glare of anoth- 
er,' and nothing save the equal pressure of 



James L. Petigru. 171 

sorrow on every side prevents me from fall- 
ing. I had implicit confidence in Petigru, 
and never knew any single man who was as 
near being an institution by himself. Orig- 
inal in all things — if his character was a mo- 
saic, he furnished the particles from his 
own resources, wearing such colors as Na- 
ture gave him, and borrowing none from his 
fellows either for ornament or for use. Con- 
scientious and just in matters of truth, he 
would cavil about a hair. Generous and 
brave, he would give without measure, and 
asked nothing in return. His probity never 
was shaken by adversity, and his gentleness 
and mercy were increased by his prosperity. 
Elevated in every sentiment, he dealt lightly 
with those who needed his forgiveness; un- 
compromising where his own rights were as- 
sailed, he was sure to put those who denied 
them at utter defiance ; his thoughts emana- 
ted from his own mind, his opinions became 
his convictions, and his convictions a part of 
his belief in God. When he acted with oth- 
ers, it was because they agreed with him. 
When he was the leader of a party, he guid- 



172 Memoie of 

ed without ostentation, and controlled -with- 
out exaction. When he was overpowered 
by numbers, he submitted to the law^ but 
never to the victor. He could stand alone 
without dismay, preferring always the grati- 
tude of the weak and helpless to the patron- 
age of the powerful and the strong. In ev- 
ery conflict Petigru was himself; when his 
equals were needed, /k^ answered to their 
names ; and when his superiors were called 
for, none were forthcoming. He knew how 
to strike the hardest blows, and he knew 
how to receive them ; for he never hesitated 
to strike when the provocation was sufiicient, 
and he never winced or quailed, no matter 
how deadly was the returning arrow. If 
there is any man now living in South Caro- 
lina capable of writing the History of his 
own Times, Petigru, for the highest aspira- 
tions as to duty or honor — for the boldness 
of his thinkings — for the brightness of his 
genius — for the grasp of his intellect — for the 
purity of his friendship — for the unselfish- 
ness of his nature, will be ranked with those 
of whom the state has most reason to be 



James L. Petigku. 173 

proud. Preaching tlie doctrines of an ex- 
alted benevolence, liis charities kept pace 
with his teachings ; and, limited in means, 
when denial was necessary, he began always 
with himself. He loved to help others, and 
to be in partnership with misfortune ; and, 
doing good without restraint, he was the liv- 
ing, moving, acting principle of those quali- 
ties which carried to his grave the profound- 
est reverence of the rich, and the heart-strick- 
en lamentations of the poor. 

" If this outpouring is tiresome or tedious, 
I ask for the forgiveness which was the prom- 
inent attribute of the subject. None loved 
me more, and none was more beloved. 

" Yours ever, Alfred Huger." 

Among these expressions of esteem and 
affection from so many quarters we find no 
intimations of infirmity on their subject such 
as besets our common nature, yet he could 
not be exempt from them. His temper was 
sometimes impatient and irritable, and the 
great though homely divinity. Prudence, was 
absent from the ofiice of always presiding 



174 Memoir of 

over the impulses of his nature. But his de- 
fects, whatever they may have been, w^ere 
lost in the broad light of his numerous vir- 
tues. 

In that most Christian gift of charity few 
Christians were his equal. With the keen- 
est insight into character and its weaknesses, 
he never ceased to see its moral deformities 
with the most tender indulgence. Over ev- 
ery stumbling traveler in life's pathway he 
was always ready, like Barrow, to say alas ! 
and to be sorrowful. He not only made am- 
ple allowances for the unfortunate, but he in- 
duced others to form gentler judgments and 
bestow habitual aid. 

His almsgiving was without voluntary 
limits. He looked at the wants, not the 
merits of his neighbors. His benevolence 
was restricted to no classes. The decayed 
gentleman who had been useless all his life, 
the politician whom the people's breath had 
made and unmade, the brother at the bar, 
whose claim was that of brotherhood only, 
when deserted by others, found in him a 
sure and efficient friend. No one ever asked 



James L. PETiaRU. 175 

for help and was refused, and lie rarely wait- 
ed to be asked. 

In his solicitudes for his relatives and 
children he was indefatigable in his efforts. 
The most delicate, judicious, unwearied ad- 
vice was always striving to develop all that 
was promising about them in mind and char- 
acter. There was no austerity in his anx- 
ious cares. The objects of his love who re- 
ceived its benefits, imparted with j)layful ten- 
derness, would understand and aj)]3reciate 
them in after times only when they were 
able to compare and comprehend them at a 
riper period. 

His friendships were strong, steadfast, and 
enduring. The oldest friends of his life, 
those of half a century, who saw him most 
frequently, lived with him most intimately, 
and knew him better than all others knew 
him, loved him with greater devotion as time 
advanced. In all the contentions of his time 
— and many were of great acrimony — he for- 
feited no confidence and lost no friend. His 
generous nature stood above the scene of 
angry dispute, and his opponents even es- 
teemed him. 



1^6 Memoir of 

The hospitality of his nature was without 
bounds. His house and table were always 
accessible to his acquaintances, and to those 
who came to him from other lands. On 
him and his old friend Judge King, and a 
few others, the reputation of the city mainly 
rested for the cordial and pleasant entertain- 
ing of strangers. He seasoned his feast with 
his wit. 

In love of right and respect for law, order, 
and due subordination, there was no man 
living so fixed and determined. He knew 
that on these principles alone rested the 
peace of the state, and he was the stanch ad- 
vocate for peace, though no one in the whole 
country was ever actuated by a bolder and 
higher spirit in maintaining truth and right. 
For the security of the state he relied on 
law and its sanctions, not on appeals to vio- 
lence and blood. 

Although at the head of the bar, the pro- 
foundest lawyer of his time, not confined in 
the range of his legal studies, but extending 
his flight to the heights and depths of the 
whole science and its masters, he was well 



James L. Petigru. 177 

fitted for wliat may liave been of broader 
usefulness in tlie state. He was formed to 
excel in literature. His habitual conversa- 
tion was with the great authors of ancient 
and modern times. He seized at once on 
the merits of a writer, and mastered the 
strong points of an argument. As instructor, 
lecturer, professor, president, in the highest 
places of education, he would have exer- 
cised a controlling power over the leading 
young men of the state. His influence over 
the scholar was remarkable. His force of 
character would have been irresistible, and 
would have impressed the general mind of 
the state. In this great department of life, 
as in others, he would not have been like 
other men. 

He was, indeed, an extraordinary mau, 
original in character, of noble virtues, en- 
dowed with an exalted intellect, with all 
the accompaniments and ornaments of wit 
and humor, and his excellencies made a deep 
and general impression on the hearts and 
minds of his countrymen. I have striven 
to do something for preserving the memory 

H2 



178 Memoir of Jas. L. Petigru. 

of a great and good man for a longer time 
and a more extended circle than the present 
limited scene. 



THE END. 






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